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MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 



Works by C. W. Leadbeater 



Astral Plane 

The Aura 

The Christian Creed 

Clairvoyance 

Devachanic Plane . 

Dreams .... 

Invisible Helpers 

New Charter : A discussion of 
the rights of men and the rights 
of animals 

Our Relation to Children 



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HIGH 
SPIRITUALITY 



DEVOTION 
MIXED WITH 

AFFECTION 



DEVOTION 

TO A 

NOBLE IDEAL 



PURE 

RELIGIOUS 

FEELING 



SELFISH 
RELIGIOUS 
FEELING 





RELIGIOUS 

FEELING TINGED 

WITH FEAR 



HIGHEST 
INTELLECT 



STRONG 
INTELLECT 



LOW TYPE 
INTELLECT 




SYMPATHY 



LOVE FOR 
HUMANITY 



HIGH 
UNSELFISH 
AFFECTION 



SELFISH 
AFFECTION 



PURE 
AFFECTION 





ADAPTABILITY 



JEALOUSY 



DEPRESSION 




SELFISHNESS 



SENSUALITY 



MAN VISIBLE AND 
INVISIBLE 

EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEN AS 
SEEN BY MEANS OF TRAINED CLAIRVOYANCE 



BY 



C. W. LEADBEATER 



WITH 

FRONTISPIECE, THREE DIAGRAMS, AND TWENTY-TWO 
COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

JOHN LANE : THE BODLEY HEAD 

1903 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JAN 15 1903 

ft Copyright Entry 



CUSS O. xxc. No 
COPY A. 



Copyright 

BY 

JOHN LANE 
1903 



FIRST EDITION PUBLISHED JANUARY, I9OJ 



PRINTED BY THE PUBLISHERS PRINTING CO. 
NEW YORK, U. S. A. 



\ 



^V 



>4 



AUTHOR'S NOTE • 

The Author wishes to express his very hearty 
acknowledgments to two Theosophical colleagues 
who have prepared for him the illustrations of 
this book — to Count Maurice Prozor, who drew 
and coloured them for him from the life, and to 
Miss Gertrude Spink, who spent many days in 
patiently copying them with the air-brush, in 
order that they might be more successfully repro- 
duced by the photographic process. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I How these Things are Known .... 1 

II The Planes op Nature 7 

III Clairvoyant Sight 13 

IV Man's Vehicles 20 

V The Trinity 26 

VI The Earlier Outpourings . . . ... 36 

VII The Animal Group-Soul 42 

VIII The Upward Curve 46 

IX Human Consciousness 52 

X The Third Outpouring 59 

XI How Man Evolves 70 

XII What His Bodies Show Us 76 

XIII What the Colours Mean 80 

XIV The Savage 87 

XV The Ordinary Person 92 

XVI Sudden Emotions * . 96 

XVII More Permanent Conditions . . . .104 

XVIII The Developed Man 117 

XIX The Health-Aura 128 

XX The Causal Body of the Adept . . . 135 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PLATE 

I Signification of the Colours 
II The Planes of Nature 

III The Three Outpourings 

IV Involution and Evolution . 
Y The Causal Body of the Savage 

VI The Mental Body of the Savage 
VII The Astral Body of the Savage 
VIII The Causal Body of the Average Man 
IX The Mental Body of the Average Man 
X The Astral Body of the Average Man 
XI A Sudden Rush of Affection 
XII A Sudden Rush of Devotion 

XIII Intense Anger 

XIV A Shock of Fear . 
XV The Average Man in Love 

XVI The Irritable Man 

XVII The Miser 

XVIII Deep Depression . 

XIX The Devotional Type . 

XX The Scientific Type 

XXI The Causal Body of the Developed Man 

XXII The Mental Body of the Developed Man 

XXIII The Astral Body of the Developed Man 

XXIV The Normal Health-Aura . 
XXV The Health-Aura in Disease 

XXVI The Causal Body of the Arhat 



Frontispiece 
page 20 
38 
46 
66 
87 



91 

93 

94 

96 

98 

100 

103 

107 

109 

110 

112 

114 

116 

118 

121 

123 

128 

132 

138 



MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

Chapter I 

HOW THESE THINGS ARE KNOWN 

Man is a curiously complex being, and his 

evolution, past, present and future, is a study 

of perennial interest for all who can see and 

understand. Through what toilsome eternities 

of gradual development he has come to be what 

he is 5 to what round in the long ladder of his 

progress he has now attained, what possibilities 

of further progress the veil of the future conceals 

from us, these are questions to which few can be 

indifferent — questions which have been occurring 

all through the ages to every one who has thought 

at all. 

Among us in the Western world the answers 

given have been many and various. There has 

been much dogmatic assertion, based on differing 

interpretations of alleged revelation ; there have 

been many ingenious speculations, the fruit in 

1 



/ 



2 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

some cases of close metaphysical reasoning. But 
dogmatism meets us with a story which is on 
the face of it manifestly impossible, while specu- 
lation moves chiefly along entirely materialistic 
lines, and endeavours to arrive at a satisfac- 
tory result by ignoring half of the phenomena 
for which we have to account. Neither dogma- 
tism nor speculation approaches the problem 
from a practical point of view, as a matter 
which can be studied and investigated like any 
other science. 

Theosophy comes forward with a theory based 
upon entirely different foundations. While in 
no way depreciating the knowledge to be gained 
either by study of the ancient scriptures or by 
philosophical reasoning, it nevertheless regards 
the constitution and the evolution of man as 
matters, not of speculation, but of simple inves- 
tigation — not of vague theory, but of definite 
fact. Its statement is perfectly clear ; the past, 
the present, and the future of man may be exam- 
ined at first-hand by all who will take the trouble 
to qualify themselves for the study. When so 
examined, they prove to be parts of a magnificent 
scheme, coherent and readily comprehensible — a 
scheme which, while it agrees with and explains 
much of the old religious teaching, is yet in no 
way dependent on it, since it can be verified at 
every step by the use of the inner faculties which, 



HOW THESE THINGS ARE KNOWN 3 

though as yet latent in the majority of mankind, 
have already been brought into working order by 
a considerable number among our students. 

For the past history of man, this theory de- 
pends not only upon the concurrent testimony of 
the tradition of the earlier religions, but upon the 
examination of a definite record — a record which 
can be seen and consulted by any one who possesses 
the degree of clairvoyance requisite to appreciate 
the vibrations of the finely-subdivided matter 
upon which it is impressed. For its knowledge as 
to the future which awaits humanity, it depends, 
first, upon logical deduction from the character 
of the progress already made ; secondly, on direct 
information supplied by men who have already 
reached those conditions which for most of us 
still constitute a more or less remote future ; and 
thirdly, on the comparison which any one who 
has the privilege of seeing them may make be- 
tween highly-evolved men at various levels. We 
can imagine that a child who did not otherwise 
know the course of nature might reason that he 
would presently grow up and become a man, 
merely from the fact that he had already grown 
to a certain extent and in a certain way, and 
that he saw around him other children and 
young people at every stage of growth between 
his own and the adult level. 

The study of the condition of man at the 



4 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

present time, of the immediate methods for his 
evolution, and of the effect upon that evolution 
of his thoughts, his emotions, his actions — all 
this is regarded by Theosophical students as a 
mere matter of the application of well-known 
laws as a broad, general principle, and then of 
careful observation, of painstaking comparison of 
many cases in order to comprehend the detailed 
working of these laws. It is, in fact, simply a 
question of sight, and this book is published in 
the hope, first, that it may help earnest students 
who do not yet possess this sight to realise how 
the soul and its vehicles really appear when 
examined by its means; and secondly, that the 
very large number of persons who are now 
beginning to exercise this vision more or less 
perfectly, may by it be helped to understand the 
meaning of what they see. 

I am perfectly aware that the world at large 
is not yet convinced of the very existence of this 
power of clairvoyant sight ; but I also know that 
all who have really studied the question have 
found the evidence for it irresistible, and we can 
afford to ignore the very positive convictions 
which are usually so vehemently expressed by 
those who have not studied it. I will venture 
to say that if any intelligent person will take 
the trouble to read the stories — the authenticated 
stories — quoted in my little book on Clair- 



HOW THESE THINGS ARE KNOWN 5 

voyance, and will then turn from them to the 
books from which they were selected, he will see 
at once that there is an overwhelming mass of 
irrefutable evidence in favour of the existence of 
this faculty. To those who themselves can see, 
and are daily in the habit of exercising this 
higher vision in a hundred different ways, the 
denial of the ignorant majority that such sight 
is possible naturally seems ridiculous. For the 
clairvoyant the question is not worth arguing. 
If a blind man came up to us and assured us 
that there was no such thing as ordinary physical 
sight, and that we were deluded in supposing 
that we possessed this faculty, we in our turn 
should probably not feel it worth while to argue 
at great length in defence of our supposed de- 
lusion. We should simply say : " I certainly do 
see, and it is useless to try to persuade me that 
I do not; all the daily experiences of my life 
show me that I do ; I decline to be argued out 
of my definite knowledge of positive facts. " Now 
this is precisely how the trained clairvoyant feels 
when ignorant people serenely pronounce that it 
is quite impossible that he should possess a 
power which he is at that very moment using to 
read the thoughts of the wiseacres who deny it 
to him ! 

I am not attempting, therefore, in this book to 
prove that clairvoyance is a reality ; I take that 



6 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

for granted, and proceed to describe what is seen 
by its means. Neither will I here repeat the 
details given in the little book which I have 
mentioned as to the methods of clairvoyance, 
but will confine myself to such brief statement 
of the broad principles of the subject as is abso- 
lutely necessary in order that this book shall 
be comprehensible to one who has not studied 
other Theosophical literature. 



Chapter II 

THE PLANES OF NATURE 

In order to enunciate even these broad principles, 
however, it is necessary to begin by explaining 
some of the facts discovered by the use of this 
very faculty. The first point which must be 
clearly comprehended is the wonderful com- 
plexity of the world around us — the fact that 
it includes enormously more than comes within 
the range of ordinary vision. 

We are all aware that matter exists in differ- 
ent conditions, and that it may be made to 
change its conditions by variation of pressure 
and temperature. We have the three well 
k nown states of matter, the solid, the liquid an d 
the gaseous, and it is the theory of science that 
all substances can, under proper variation of 
temperature and pressure, exist in all these con- 
ditions. There are still, I think, a few sub- 
stances which chemists have not succeeded in 
reducing from one state to another; but it is 

universally believed that just as water may 

7 



8 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

become ice at a lower temperature, and steam 
at a higher one, so every solid which we know 
might become liquid or gaseous under proper 
conditions; every liquid may be made solid or 
gaseous, every gas may be liquefied and even 
solidified. We know that air itself has been 
liquefied, and that some of the other gases have 
been reduced to a solid slab. 

Occult chemistry shows us another and higher 
condition than the gaseous, into which also all 
substances known to us can be translated or 
transmuted; and to that condition we have 
given the name of etheric. That which science 
postulates as ether is found by occult chemistry 
to be not a homogeneous body, but simply 
another state of matter; not itself a new kind 
of substance, but ordinary matter reduced to 
a particular state. We may have, for example, 
hydrogen in an etheric condition instead of as a 
gas; we may have gold or silver or any other 
element either as a solid, a liquid or a gas, or 
in this other higher state which we call etheric. 
Just as we find in the world about us some 
elements normally solid, as is gold; some nor- 
mally liquid, as is mercury ; and some normally 
gaseous, as is oxygen, so there are substances 
which are normally etheric — which ordinarily 
exist in that condition, though by special treat- 
ment they can be brought down to the gaseous 



THE PLANES OF NATURE 9 

condition, or raised to some other state still finer 
than their own. 

In ordinary science we speak of an atom of 
oxygen, an atom of hydrogen, an atom of any of 
the sixty or seventy substances which chemists 
call elements, the theory being that that is an 
element which cannot be further reduced, and 
that each of these elements has its atom — and an 
atom, as we may see from the Greek derivation 
of the word, means that which cannot be cut, or 
further subdivided. Occult science tells us, what 
many scientists have frequently suspected, that 
all these so-called elements are not in the true 
sense of the word elements at all ; that what we 
call an atom of oxygen or hydrogen is not the 
ultimate, and in fact is not an atom at all, but a 
molecule which can under certain circumstances 
be broken up into atoms. By repeating this 
breaking-up process it is found that we arrive 
eventually at an infinite number of definite 
physical atoms which are all alike ; so that there 
is one substance at the back of all substances, 
and different combinations of its ultimate atoms 
give us what in chemistry are called atoms of 
oxygen or hydrogen, gold or silver, lithium or 
platinum, etc. When these are all broken up 
we get back to a set of atoms which are all 
identical, except that some of them are positive 
and some negative. 



10 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

The study of these atoms and of the possi- 
bilities of their combination is in itself one of 
most enthralling interest, though foreign to our 
present subject; but those specially interested 
in the matter may be referred to Mrs. Be samVs 
article upon Occult Chemis try in Lucifer for 
November 1895. Even these, however, are 
found to be atoms only from the point of view 
•of our physical plane ; that is to say, there are 
methods by which even they can be subdivided, 
but when they are so broken up they give us 
matter belonging to a different realm of nature 
— matter which is not expansible by any degree 
of heat which we are able to produce, or con- 
tractible by any degree of cold with which we 
are acquainted. Yet this higher matter also is 
not simple but complex; and we find that it 
also exists in a series of states of its own, 
corresponding very fairly to the states of phys- 
ical matter which we call solid, liquid, gaseous 
or etheric. Again, by carrying on our process 
of subdivision far enough we reach another 
atom — the atom of that realm of nature to 
which occultists have given the name of the 
astral world. 

Then the whole process may be repeated ; for 
by further subdivision of that astral atom we 
find ourselves dealing with another still higher 
and more refined world, though a world which 



1 



THE PLANES OF NATURE 11 

is still material. Once again we find matter 
existing in definitely marked conditions corre- 
sponding at that much higher level to the states 
with which we are familiar; and the ultimate 
result of our investigations brings us once again 
to an atom — the atom of this third great realm 
of nature, which in Theosophy we call the mental 
world. So far as we know, there is no limit to 
this possibility of subdivision, but there is a 
very distinct limit to our capability of observing 
it. However, we can see enough to be certain 
of the existence of a considerable number of 
these different realms, each of which is in one 
sense a world in itself, though in another and 
wider sense all are parts of one stupendous 
whole. 

In our literature these different realms of 
nature are frequently spoken of as planes, be- 
cause in our study it is sometimes convenient 
to image them as one above another, according 
to the different degrees of density of the matter 
of which they are composed. It will be seen that 
in the accompanying diagram (Plate II.) they 
are drawn in this way; but it must be very 
carefully borne in mind that this arrangement 
is merely adopted for convenience and as a 
symbol, and that it in no way represents the 
actual relations of these various planes. They 
must not be imagined as lying above one another 



12 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

like the shelves of a book-case, but rather as 
filling the same space and interpenetrating one 
another. It is a fact well known to science 
that even in the hardest substances no two 
atoms ever touch one another; always each 
atom has its field of action and vibration, and 
every molecule in turn has its larger field; so 
that there is always space between them under 
any possible circumstances. Every physical 
atom is floating in an astral sea — a sea of astral 
matter which surrounds it and fills every inter- 
stice in this physical matter. It is universally 
recognised that ether interpenetrates all known 
substances, the densest solid as well as the most 
rarefied gas ; and just as it moves with perfect 
freedom between the particles of the denser 
matter, so does astral matter interpenetrate it 
in turn, and move with perfect freedom among 
its particles. The mental matter in its turn 
interpenetrates the astral in precisely the same 
manner; so that all these different realms of 
nature are not in any way separated in space, 
but are all existing around us and about us here 
and now, so that to see them and to investigate 
them it is not necessary for us to make any 
movement in space, but only to open within 
ourselves the senses by means of which they can 
be perceived. 



Chapter III 

CLAIRVOYANT SIGHT 

This brings before us another very important 
consideration. All these varieties of finer matter 
exist not only in the world without, but they 
exist in man also. He has not only the physical 
body which we see, but he has also within him 
what we may describe as bodies appropriate to 
these various planes of nature, and consisting in 
each case of their matter. In the man's physical 
body there is etheric matter as well as the solid 
matter which is visible to us (see Plates XXIV. 
and XXV.); and this etheric matter is readily 
visible to the clairvoyant. In the same way a 
more highly developed clairvoyant who was cap- 
able of perceiving the more refined astral matter, 
would see the man represented at that level by a 
mass of that matter, which is in reality his body 
or vehicle as regards that plane ; and exactly the 
same thing is true with regard to the mental 
plane in its turn. The soul of man has not one 

body, but many bodies, for when sufficiently 

13 



14 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

evolved he is able to express himself on all these 
different levels of nature, and he is therefore 
provided with a suitable vehicle of the matter 
belonging to each, and it is through these various 
vehicles that he is able to receive impressions 
from the worlds to which they correspond. 

We must not think of the man as creating 
these vehicles for himself in the course of his 
future evolution, for every man possesses them 
from the beginning, though he is by no means 
conscious of their existence. We are constantly 
using to a certain extent this higher matter 
within ourselves, even though it be uncon- 
sciously. Every time that we think, we set in 
motion the mental matter within us, and a 
thought is clearly visible to a clairvoyant as a 
vibration in that matter, set up first of all within 
the man, and then affecting matter of the same 
degree of density in the world around him. 
But before this thought can be effective on the 
physical plane it has to be transferred from that 
mental matter into astral matter; and when 
it has excited similar vibrations in that, the 
astral matter in its turn affects the etheric 
matter, creating sympathetic vibrations in it, 
and that in turn acts upon the denser physical 
matter, the grey matter of the brain. 

So every time we think, we go through a much 
longer process than we know ; just as every time 



CLAIRVOYANT SIGHT 15 

we feel anything we go through a process of 
which we are quite unconscious. We touch 
some substance and feel that it is too hot, and 
we snatch away our hand from it instantaneously, 
as we think. (^But science teaches us that this 
process is not instantaneous, and that it is not 
the hand which feels, but the brain; that the 
nerves communicate the idea of intense heat to 
the brain, which at once telegraphs back along 
the nerve-threads the instruction to withdraw the 
hand ; and it is only as a result of all this that 
the withdrawal takes place, which seems to us to 
be immediate. )The process has a definite dura- 
tion, which can be measured by sufficiently fine 
instruments; the rate of its motion is perfectly 
well defined and known to physiologists. Just 
in the same way thought appears to be an in- 
stantaneous process; but it is not, for every 
thought has to go through the stages which I 
have described. Every impression which we re- 
ceive in the brain through the senses has to 
pass up through these various grades of matter 
before it reaches the real man, the ego, the soul 
within. 

We have here a kind of system of telegraphy 
between the physical plane and the soul; and it 
is important to realise that this telegraph-line 
has intermediate stations. It is not only from 
the physical plane that impressions can be re- 



16 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

ceived; the astral matter within a man, for 
example, is not only capable of receiving a 
vibration from etheric matter and transmitting 
it to the mental matter, but it is also quite 
capable of receiving impressions from the sur- 
rounding matter of its own plane, and trans- 
mitting those through the mental body to the 
real man within. So the man may use his 
astral body as a means for receiving impressions 
from and observing the astral world which sur- 
rounds him; and in exactly the same way 
through his mental body he may observe and 
obtain information from the mental world. But 
in order to do either of these things, he must 
first learn how they are done ; that is to say, he 
must learn to focus his consciousness in his 
astral body or in his mental body, just as it is 
now focussed in the physical brain. I have 
already treated this subject fully in my little 
book on Clairvoyance, so that I need do no more 
than refer to it here. 

Although science is not yet prepared to admit 
the existence of these various planes or degrees 
of matter in nature, there is nothing in this 
hypothesis in the least contradictory to its teach- 
ing. It should always be remembered that all 
this is a matter of direct knowledge and cer- 
tainty to those who are in the habit of studying 
it, although it is presented to the consideration 



CLAIRVOYANT SIGHT 17 

of the world merely as a hypothesis; but even 
the man who approaches the subject for the 
first time must surely see that in suggesting 
this we are not in any way claiming faith in a 
miracle, but simply inviting investigation of 
a system. The higher grades of matter follow 
on in orderly sequence from those which we 
already know, so that though to some extent 
each plane may be regarded as a world in itself, 
it is yet also true that the whole is in reality 
one great world, which can be fully seen only 
by the highly-developed soul. 

To aid us in our grasp of this, let us take an 
illustration which, although impossible in itself, 
may yet be useful to us as suggesting rather 
startling possibilities. Suppose that instead of 
the sight which we now possess, we had a visual 
apparatus arranged somewhat differently. ..In 
the human eye we have both solid and liquid 
matter ; suppose that both these orders of mat- 
ter were capable of receiving separate impres- 
sions, but each only from that type of matter 
in the outside world to which it corresponded. 
Suppose also that among men some possessed 
one of these types of sight and some another. 
Consider how very curiously imperfect would 
be the conception of the world obtained by 
each of these two types of men. Imagine 

them as standing on the sea-shore; one being 

2 



18 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

able to see only solid matter, would be utterly 
unconscious of the ocean stretched before him, 
but would see instead the vast cavity of the 
ocean-bed, with all its various inequalities, and 
the fishes and other inhabitants of the deep 
would appear to him as floating in the air above 
this enormous valley. If there were clouds in 
the sky they would be entirely invisible to him, 
since they are composed of matter in the liquid 
state ; for him the sun would be always shining 
in the day-time, and he would be unable to 
comprehend why, on what to us is a cloudy day, 
its heat should be so much diminished; if a glass 
of water were offered to him, it would appear to 
him to be empty. 

Contrast with this the appearance which would 
be presented before the eyes of the man who saw 
only matter in the liquid condition. He would 
indeed be conscious of the ocean, but for him 
the shore and the cliffs would not exist; he 
would perceive the clouds very clearly, but 
would see almost nothing of the landscape over 
which they were moving. In the case of the 
glass of water he would be entirely unable to 
see the vessel, and would therefore be quite 
unable to understand why the water should so 
mysteriously preserve the special shape given to 
it by the invisible glass. Imagine these two 
persons standing side by side, each describing 



CLAIRVOYANT SIGHT 19 

the landscape as he saw it, and each feeling 
perfectly certain that there could be no other 
kind of sight but his in the universe, and that 
anyone claiming to see anything more or any- 
thing different must necessarily be either a 
dreamer or a deceiver ! 

We can smile over the incredulity of these 
hypothetical observers; but it is exceedingly 
difficult for the average man to realise that, in 
proportion to the whole that is to be seen, his 
power of vision is very much more imperfect 
than either of theirs would be in relation to the 
world as he sees it. And he also is strongly 
disposed to hint that those who see a little 
more than he does must really be drawing upon 
their imagination for their alleged facts. It is 
one of the commonest of our mistakes to consider 
that the limit of our power of perception is also 
the limit of all that there is to perceive. Yet 
the scientific evidence is indisputable, and the 
infinitesimal proportion (as compared to the 
whole) of the groups of vibrations by which alone 
we can see or hear is a fact about which there can 
be no doubt. The clairvoyant is simply a man 
who developes within himself the power to respond 
to another octave out of the stupendous gamut of 
possible vibrations, and so enables himself to see 
more of the world around him than those of 
more limited perception. 



Chapter IV 

MAN'S VEHICLES 

If we turn to Plate II. we shall see there a 
diagram of these planes of nature, and we shall 
also observe the names which have been em- 
ployed to designate the vehicles or bodies of 
man which correspond to them. It will be 
noticed that the names used in Theosophical 
literature for the higher planes are derived from 
Sanskrit, for in Western philosophy we have as 
yet no terms for these worlds composed of finer 
states of matter. Each of these names has its 
especial meaning, though in the case of the 
higher planes it indicates only how little we 
know of those conditions. 

Nirvana has for ages been the term employed 
in the East to convey the idea of the highest 
conceivable spiritual attainment. (^To reach 
2^rvana was to pass beyond humanity, to gain 
a level of peace and bliss far above earthly 
comprehension) So absolutely was all that was 

earthly left behind by the aspirant who attained 

20 



PLANES OF NATURE 



iHAPARANIRVANIG 



FIRST 



TRIPLE MANIFESTATION 



£M^=> 



SECQN 



?e 



z~x 



r^ 



■ n 







ATOMIC 



NIRVANIC 



HREEFOLD PIRlTin AN 



prRiT 



ATOMIC 



BUDDHIC 



The Reincarnating , 



Ego or Soul in Man 



NTUITION 




ATOMIC 



NTELLIGENC 



ARUPA 

MENTAL 

RUPA 



CAUSAL 



BODY 



MENTAL 



B QPY 



ATOMIC 



ASTRAL 



ASTRAL 



BODY 



ATOMIC 



1 



SUB-ATOMIC 



ETHERIC 



PHYSICAL 



SUPER-ETHERIC 



DOUBLE 



ETHERIC 



GASEOUS 



LIQUID 
SOLID 



DENSE BODY 



II. 



man's vehicles 21 

its transcendent glory, that some European 
orientalists fell at first into the mistake of sup- 
posing that it was an entire annihilation of the 
man — an idea than which nothing could be more 
utterly the opposite of the truth. To gain the 
full use of the exalted consciousness of this 
exceedingly elevated spiritual condition is to 
reach the goal appointed for human evolution 
during this aeon or dispensation — to become an 
adept, a man who is something more than man. 
For the vast majority of humanity such progress 
will be attained only after cycles of evolution, 
but the few determined souls who refuse to be 
daunted by difficulties, who as it were take the 
kingdom of heaven by violence, may find this 
glorious prize within their reach at a much 
earlier period. 

Of the states of consciousness above this we 
naturally know nothing, except that they exist. 
"Para" signifies "beyond," and " Maha" means 
"great," so all the information conveyed by the 
names of these conditions is that the first is "the 
plane beyond Nirvana," and the second is "the 
greater plane beyond Nirvana" — showing that 
those who bestowed these appellations thousands 
of years ago either possessed no more direct 
information than we have, or else, possessing 
it, despaired of finding any words in which it 
could be expressed. 



22 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

The name of Buddhi has been given to that 
principle or component part of man which 
manifests itself through the matter of the 
fourth plane, while the mental plane is the 
sphere of action of what we call the mind in 
man. It will be observed that this plane is 
divided into two parts, which are distinguished 
by a difference in colour and the names of 
"rupa" and "arupa," meaning respectively 
"having form" and "formless." These are 
names given in order to indicate a certain 
quality of the matter of the plane ; in the lower 
part of it the matter is very readily moulded by 
the action of human thought into definite forms, 
while on the higher division this does not occur, 
but the more abstract thought of that level 
expresses itself to the eye of the clairvoyant in 
flashes or streams. A fuller account of this 
will be found in the sixth of our series of 
Theosophical manuals. 

The name "astral" is not of our choosing; 
we have inherited it from the mediaeval al- 
chemists. It signifies "starry," and is supposed 
to have been applied to the matter of the plane 
next above the physical because of the luminous 
appearance which is associated with the more 
rapid rate of its vibration. vXhe astral plane is 
the world of passion, of emotion and sensation ; 
and it is through man's vehicle on this plane that 



man's vehicles 23 

all his feelings exhibit themselves to the clair- 
voyant investigator.y The astral body of man 
is therefore continually changing in appear- 
ance as his emotions change, as we shall show 
in detail later. 

In our literature certain colours have usually 
been employed to represent each of the lower 
planes, following a table of colours given by 
Madame Blavatsky in her monumental work 
The Secret Doctrine; but it should be clearly 
understood that these are employed simply as 
distinctive marks — that they are merely sym- 
bolical, and are not in any way intended to 
imply a preponderance of a particular hue in 
the plane to which it is applied. All known 
colours, and many which are at present unknown 
to us, exist upon each of these higher planes of 
nature; but as we rise from one stage to an- 
other, we find them ever more delicate and 
more luminous, so that they might be described 
as higher octaves of colour. An attempt is 
made to indicate this in our illustrations of the 
various vehicles appropriate to these planes, as 
will be seen later. 

It will be noticed that the number of planes 
is seven, and that each of them in turn is 
divided into seven sub-planes. This number 
seven has always been considered as holy and 
occult, because it is found to underlie mani- 



24 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

festation in various ways. In the lower planes 
which are within the reach of our investigation 
the sevenfold subdivision is very clearly marked ; 
and all indications seem to warrant the assump- 
tion that in those higher realms which are as 
yet beyond our direct observation a similar 
arrangement obtains, allowing for the difference 
of conditions. 

As man learns to function in these higher 
types of matter, he finds that the limitations of 
the lower life are transcended, and fall away 
one by one. He finds himself in a world of 
many dimensions, instead of one of three only; 
and that fact alone opens up a whole series of 
entirely new possibilities in various directions. 
The study of these additional dimensions is one 
of the most fascinating that can be imagined; 
and those who feel an interest in it cannot do 
better than take it up in earnest, beginning with 
Mr. C. H. Hinton's admirable volumes of 
Scientific Romances. Short of really gaining 
the sight of the other planes, there is no 
method by which so clear a conception of astral 
life can be obtained as by the realisation of the 
fourth dimension. 

It is not my object at the moment to describe 
all that is gained by the wonderful extension of 
consciousness which belongs to these higher 
planes — indeed, I have done that already to 



man's vehicles 25 

some extent in a previous book. For the 
present we need refer only to one line of in- 
vestigation — that connected with the constitu- 
tion of man, and how he came to be what he is. 

The history of his earlier evolution can be 
obtained only by examination of those inefface- 
able records of the past from which all that has 
happened since the solar system came into exist- 
ence may be recovered, and caused to pass before 
the mind's eye; so that the observer sees every- 
thing precisely as though he had been present 
when it occurred, with the enormous additional 
advantage of being able to hold any single 
scene as long as may be required for careful 
examination, or to pass a whole century of 
events in review in a few moments if desired. 
This wonderful reflection of the divine memory 
cannot be consulted with perfect certainty below 
the mental plane, so for the ready reading of this 
earlier history it is necessary that the student 
should at least have learnt to use with freedom 
the senses of his mental body; and if he is so 
fortunate as to have under his control the 
faculties of the still higher causal body, his task 
will be easier still. The question of these 
records has been more fully dealt with in 
Chapter VII. of my little book on Clairvoyance, 
to which the reader may be referred for further 
details. 



Chapter V 

THE TRINITY 

We must now endeavour to understand how 
man comes into existence amidst this wonderful 
system of the planes of nature, and in order to 
do that we shall find ourselves compelled to take 
an excursion into the domain of theology, though 
in such theology as interests us we deal with no 
pious opinions or speculations, but only with 
what to us is proved scientific fact. 

When we search these records in order to 
discover the origin of man, what do we see? 
We find that man is the resultant of an elaborate 
and beautiful evolutionary scheme, and that in 
him three streams of Divine life may be said to 
converge. One of the sacred scriptures of the 
world speaks of God as having made man in His 
own image — a statement which, when it is prop- 
erly understood, is seen to embody a great occult 
truth. All religions agree in describing the 
Deity as threefold in His manifestation, and it 

will be found that the soul of man is also three- 

26 



THE TRINITY 27 

fold, and that there is the closest possible con- 
nection between these facts. 

It will, of course, be understood that we are 
speaking now not of the Absolute, the Supreme, 
and the Infinite (for of Him naturally we can 
know nothing, except that He is), but of that 
glorious Manifestation of Him who is the great 
Guiding Force or deity of our own solar system 
— who is called in our philosophy the Logos of 
the system. Of Him is true all that we have 
ever heard predicated of the Deity — all that is 
good, that is, for in these days we hear so very 
much that is not good attributed to Him. Those 
who profess to worship Him frequently attribute 
to Him their own vices, and impiously dare to 
describe Him as jealous, angry, revengeful and 
cruel. Such abominable blasphemy may pos - 
s ibly be less heinous in the Central Afric an 
savage, who has no conception of power except 



as expressed in cruelty a nd blood thirst iness ^ but 
there can be no shadow of excuse for it among 
people who profess to be civilized, and those 
who so malign the Fount of all Goodness and 
Love are committing a crime whose evil results 
cannot easily be measured. But all that we have 
heard of God which is good — the love, the wis- 
dom, the power, the patience and compassion, 
the omniscience, the omnipresence, the omnipo- 
tence — all of this, and much more, is true of the 



28 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

Solar Logos, in whom, in very truth, we live 
and move and have our being. And be it re- 
membered that in Theosophy we do not offer 
this as a pious opinion or an article of religious 
faith ; to the clairvoyant investigator this Mighty 
Existence is a definite certainty — not that any 
merely human development can enable us 
directly to see Him, but that unmistakable 
evidence of His action and His purpose sur- 
rounds us on every side as we study the life of 
the higher planes. 

As He shows Himself to us in His work the 
Solar Logos is undoubtedly triple — three and yet 
one, as religion has long ago told us. There is 
much that at first sight seems quite incompre- 
hensible in the statements on this subject which 
are contained in the old f ormulse of the Church ; 
yet when explained by the light of the Theo- 
sophical teaching it will be seen that they con- 
stitute a remarkably accurate and very beauti- 
ful declaration of the truth, even though here 
and there passages of the most degraded materi- 
alism have crept in. The real beauty and mean- 
ing of the Athanasian Creed, for example, can 
be seen only when it is studied verse by verse 
with the aid of Theosophical diagrams. 

It is obviously impossible to picture this divine 
manifestation in any way, for it is necessarily 
entirely beyond our power either of representa- 



THE TRINITY 29 

tion or comprehension, yet a small part of its 
action may perhaps to some extent be brought 
within our grasp by the employment of certain 
simple symbols, such as those adopted in Plate 
II. It will be seen that on the seventh or 
highest plane of our system the triple mani- 
festation of our Logos is imaged by three circles, 
representing His three aspects. Each of these 
aspects appears to have its own quality and 
power. In the First Aspect He does not mani- 
fest Himself on any plane below the highest, but 
in the Second He descends to the sixth plane, 
and draws round Himself a garment of its mat- 
ter, this making a quite separate and lower 
expression of Him. In the Third Aspect He 
descends to the upper portion of the fifth plane, 
and draws round Himself matter of that level, 
thus making a third manifestation. It will be 
observed that these three manifestations on their 
respective planes are entirely distinct one from 
the other, and yet we have only to follow up the 
dotted lines to see that these separate persons are 
nevertheless in truth but aspects of the one. 
Quite separate, when regarded as persons, each 
on his own plane — quite unconnected diagonally, 
as it were; yet each having his perpendicular 
connection with himself at the level where these 
three are one. 

Thus we see a very real meaning in the 



30 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

insistence of the Church "that we worship one 
God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither 
confounding the persons nor dividing the sub- 
stance " — that is to say, never confusing in 
our minds the work and functions of the three 
separate manifestations, each on his own plane, 
yet never for a moment forgetting the Eternal 
Unity of the "substance," that which lies behind 
all alike on the highest plane. 

It is instructive to notice here exactly the 
true meaning of this word person. It is com- 
pounded of the two Latin words per and sona, 
and therefore signifies " that through which the 
sound comes" — the mask worn by the Roman 
actor to indicate the part which he happened at 
the moment to be playing. Thus we very 
appropriately speak of the group of temporary 
lower vehicles which a soul assumes when he 
descends into incarnation as his "personality." 
Thus also these separate manifestations of the 
One on different planes are rightly thought of as 
persons. 

Thus we see how it can be said: — "There is 
one Person of the Father, another of the Son, 
and another of the Holy Ghost; but the God- 
head of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost is all one — the glory equal, the majesty 
co-eternal." Truly the manifestations are dis- 
tinct, each on its own plane, and consequently 



THE TRINITY 31 

one appears lower than another; yet we have 
only to look back to the seventh plane to realise 
that " in this Trinity none is afore or after other, 
none is greater or less than another, but the 
whole three Persons are co-eternal together and 
co-equal." So also " every Person by himself is 
God and Lord," "and yet they are not three 
Lords, but one Lord." 

See also how clear and luminous become many 
of the statements concerning the Second Aspect 
and His descent into matter. There is another 
and far wider meaning for this, as will be seen 
in Plate III. ; but what is true of that grander 
descent is true also of this, for when we think 
of the Aspect on the higher plane as the essential 
Godhead ensouling the manifestation in matter 
relatively lower, though still high above our ken, 
we see how he is " God, of the substance of his 
Father, begotten before the world; but man, of 
the substance of his Mother, born in the world." 
For as an aspect of the divine He existed before 
the solar system, but His manifestation in the 
matter of the sixth plane took place during the 
life of that system. 

So, "although he be God and Man, yet he 
is not two, but one Christ; one, not by con- 
version of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking 
of the manhood into God." One, that is, not 
only because of the essential Unity, but because 



32 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

of the glorious power of drawing back into 
Himself all that has been acquired by the descent 
into lower matter. But this belongs more espe- 
cially to that greater descent illustrated for us in 
Plate III. 

The greatest schism which has ever occurred 
in the Christian Church was that between the 
Eastern and Western branches, the Greek 
Church and the Eoman. Although as a matter 
of fact political and financial considerations were 
largely responsible for this division, yet the doc- 
trinal reason alleged for it was the supposed cor- 
ruption of the truth, by the introduction into the 
Creed of the word filioque at the Council of 
Toledo in the year 589. 

The question at issue was whether the Holy 
Ghost proceeded from the Father alone, or from 
the Father and the Son — surely a point suffi- 
ciently unpractical and remote from human 
knowledge to have been put aside by both parties 
for the sake of unity. But theological acrimony 
always seems to rage most bitterly around sub- 
jects the most obscure, unimportant, and unin- 
teresting. Our diagram, however, does enable us 
to see what was the point at issue in this case ; 
and furthermore, it shows us, curiously enough, 
that both parties were right, and that if they 
had only clearly understood the matter there need 
have been no schism at all. 



THE TRINITY 33 

The Latin Church held, quite reasonably, that 
there could be no manifestation on the fifth 
plane of a Force which admittedly came from 
the seventh, without a passage through the 
intermediate sixth, so they declared that He 
proceeded from the Father and the Son. The 
Greek Church, on the other hand, insisted abso- 
lutely on the distinctness of the Three Mani- 
festations, and quite rightly protested against 
any theory of a procession from the First Mani- 
festation through the Second such as would be 
typified in our diagram if we drew a diagonal 
line through the First, Second and Third. 
The dotted line on the right of Plate II., 
showing how the Third Aspect descends through 
the planes and finally manifests on the fifth, 
is of course the key to the true line of pro- 
cession, and the absolute harmony of the two 
conflicting ideas. 

The wonderful way in which man is made in 
the image of God may be seen by comparing the 
triad of the human soul with the Trinity in 
manifestation above it. So astonishingly ma- 
terial have been the orthodox conceptions, that 
this text has literally been interpreted as re- 
ferring to the physical body of man, and made to 
mean that God created man's body in a shape 
which He foresaw as that which Christ would 

choose to assume when He came on earth — a 
3 



34 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

rather remarkable instance of mental confusion 
even for a theologian. 

A glance at Plate II. shows us at once the 
true meaning of those words. Not the physical 
body of man, but the constitution of his soul, 
reproduces with marvellous exactitude the method 
of Divine manifestation. Just as three aspects 
of the Divine are seen on the seventh plane, so 
the Divine Spark of the spirit in man is seen to 
be triple in its appearance on the fifth plane. 
In both cases the Second Aspect is able to descend 
one plane lower, and to clothe itself in the matter 
of that plane; in both cases the Third Aspect is 
able to descend two planes and repeat the process. 
So in both cases there is a Trinity in Unity, 
separate in its manifestations, yet one in the 
reality behind. 

But for the moment we are concerned simply 
with the fact that each of the three Aspects or 
Persons or Manifestations of the Logos has an 
especial part to play in the preparation and 
development of the soul of man. What these 
parts are we shall endeavour to make clear by 
the help of the diagram given on Plate III. 
The horizontal subdivisions indicate the planes, 
precisely as in Plate II., and above them will 
be seen three symbols belonging to the series 
described by Madame Blavatsky in The Secret 
Doctrine. The highest represents the First 



THE TRINITY 35 

Aspect of the Logos, and bears only a central 
dot, signifying the primary manifestation in 
our system. The Second Aspect of the Logos is 
symbolized by a circle divided by a diameter, 
showing the dual manifestation which is always 
associated with the Second Person of any of the 
Trinities, while the lowest circle contains the 
Greek cross, one of the most usual symbols of 
the Third Aspect. 



Chapter VI 

THE EARLIER OUTPOURINGS 

It is from this Third Aspect that the first move- 
ment towards the formation of the system comes. 
Previous to this movement we have in exist- 
ence nothing but the atomic state of matter 
in each of the planes of nature, none of the 
aggregations or combinations which make up 
the lower sub-planes of each having yet been 
formed. But into this sea of virgin matter 
(the true Virgin Maria) pours down the Holy 
Spirit, the Lifegiver, as He is called in the 
Nicene Creed ; and by the action of His glorious 
vitality the atoms are awakened to new powers 
and possibilities of attraction and repulsion, and 
thus the lower subdivisions of each plane come 
into existence. It will be seen that this is sym- 
bolized in the diagram by a line descending 
from the lowest circle straight through all the 
planes, growing broader and darker as it comes, 
to show how the Divine Spirit becomes more 

and more veiled in matter as it descends, until 

36 



THE EARLIER OUTPOURINGS 37 

many are quite unable to recognise it as divine 
at all. 

Yet the living force is nevertheless there, even 
when it is most strictly confined in the lowest of 
its forms. The recent experiments of Professor 
von Schron at Naples have conclusively proved 
the existence of life in the mineral kingdom, and 
show also in a most wonderful manner the action 
of the first and second of these great successive 
outpourings of the Divine Life. 

Into this matter thus vivified, the second 
great outpouring of the divine life descends. 
Thus the Second Person of the Trinity takes 
form not of the "virgin " or unproductive matter 
alone, but of the matter which is already instinct 
and pulsating with the life of the Third Person, 
so that both the life and the matter surround 
Him as a vesture, and thus in very truth He is 
"incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin 
Mary," which is the true rendering of a promi- 
nent passage in our creed. (See The Christian 
Creed, page 42.) 

Very slowly and gradually this resistless flood 
pours down through the various planes and 
kingdoms, spending in each of them a period 
equal in duration to one entire incarnation of a 
planetary chain, a period which, if measured as 
we measure time, would cover very many millions 
of years. This flood is symbolized in Plate III. 



38 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

by the line which, starting from the second of 
the circles, sweeps down the left-hand side of 
the oval, gradually darkening as it approaches 
its nadir. After passing that point it commences 
its upward arc and rises through the physical, 
astral, and lower mental planes until it meets 
the third great outpouring, which is typified by 
the line starting from the highest circle and 
forming the right-hand side of the great oval. 
Of this meeting we shall say more hereafter, but 
for the moment let us turn our attention to the 
descending arc. To aid us the better to com- 
prehend this, let us turn to Plate IV. This 
diagram, though it looks so different, in fact 
corresponds very closely with Plate III. ; the 
variously coloured column on the left is identical 
with the downward-sweeping curve on our left 
in Plate III., and all the pyramidal figures which 
make the rest of the diagram are simply repre- 
sentations of the earlier part of the upward curve 
on the right of Plate III., pictured at various 
stages of its growth. 

It will be observed that at various stages of 
its descent it is called by various names. As 
a whole, it is often spoken of as monadic 
essence, more especially when clothed only in 
the atomic matter of the various planes; but 
when on its downward course it energizes in 
the matter of the higher part of the mental 



THE THREE OUTPOURINGS 




in. 



THE EARLIER OUTPOURINGS 39 

plane, it is known as the First Elemental 
Kingdom. After spending a whole chain-period 
in that evolution, it descends to the lower or 
rupa levels of the same plane, and there it 
ensouls the Second Elemental Kingdom for 
another chain-period. Its next aeon is spent 
on the astral level, where it is called the Third 
Elemental Kingdom, or very often simply ele- 
mental essence of the astral plane. At both of 
these stages it is very intimately connected with 
man, as it enters largely into the composition of 
his various vehicles, and influences his thought 
and action. This, however, is beside our present 
subject, and for a full description of this action 
of the "desire- elemental" and the "mental ele- 
mental " upon man we must refer our readers to 
other Theosophical works. 

When this great life-wave of divine force 
reaches the lowest point of its destined course 
it is immersed in physical matter; and at this 
period, and for some time after it has begun its 
long upward journey, it is energizing or en- 
souling the mineral kingdom of the particular 
chain upon which it happens to be at the mo- 
ment. At this stage it has sometimes been 
called "the mineral monad," just as at later 
periods of its evolution it has been named " the 
vegetable monad" and "the animal monad." 
But all these titles are somewhat misleading, 



40 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

because they seem to suggest that one great 
monad animates the entire kingdom. 

Even when this monadic essence first comes 
before us, in the earliest of the elemental 
kingdoms, it is already not one monad, but 
very many — not one great life-stream, but 
man}' parallel streams, each possessing charac- 
teristics of its own. The whole scheme tends 
increasingly toward differentiation, and ever as 
these streams descend from kingdom to king- 
dom they divide and subdivide more and more. 
It may be that there is a point before all this 
evolution at which we may think of the great 
outpouring as homogeneous, though no man has 
ever seen it in that condition ; and at the con- 
clusion of the first great stage of evolution it 
is finally divided into individualities, each man 
being a separate soul, though as yet an unde- 
veloped soul. 

Now at all points between these two extremes 
its condition is something intermediate; there 
is always subdivision, but it is not yet carried 
to the point of individualization. It must never 
be forgotten that we are dealing all the while 
with the evolution of the ensouling force or 
life, and not of the outward form; and this 
ensouling energy evolves by means of the 
qualities acquired in physical incarnation. In 
the vegetable kingdom, for example, we have 



THE EARLIER OUTPOURINGS 41 

not a soul for one plant, but one group-soul for 
an enormous number of plants — perhaps in some 
cases for a whole species. In the animal king- 
dom this subdivision has proceeded much further, 
and though it may still be true among low forms 
of insect life that one soul animates many 
millions of bodies, in the case of the higher 
animals a comparatively small number of phy- 
sical forms are the expression of one group- 
soul. 



Chapter VII 

THE ANIMAL GEOUP-SOUL 

This idea of the group-soul seems to many 
students novel and difficult ; perhaps an Oriental 
simile may help us to understand it more 
readily. They tell us that the group-soul is 
like the water in a bucket, while if we suppose 
a tumblerful of water withdrawn from that 
bucket, we shall have a representation of the 
soul of the single animal. The water in the 
glass is for the time quite separate from that 
in the bucket, and it takes the form of the glass 
which contains it. Suppose that we put into 
that glass a certain amount of colouring matter, 
so that the water in it acquires a distinctive hue 
of its own ; that colouring matter will represent 
the qualities developed in the temporarily sepa- 
rated soul by the various experiences through 
which it passes. 

The death of the animal will be typified by 
pouring back the water from the glass into the 

bucket, when the colouring matter will at once 

42 



THE ANIMAL GROUP-SOUL 43 

spread through the whole of the water, tinting 
it faintly. In exactly the same way, whatever 
qualities have been developed during the life 
of the separated animal will be distributed 
through the whole group-soul after his death. 
It would be impossible to take again out of the 
bucket the same glass of water, but every 
glassful taken out afterwards will necessarily be 
coloured by the matter brought in from that 
first glass. If it were possible to take out of 
the bucket exactly the same molecules of water, 
to reproduce the first glassful exactly, that 
would be a veritable reincarnation; but since 
that is not possible, we have instead the reab- 
sorption of the temporary soul into the group- 
soul — a process in which, nevertheless, every- 
thing that has been gained by the temporary 
separation is carefully preserved. 

Not one glass at a time only, but many glasses 
simultaneously, are filled from each bucket; and 
each one of them brings back to the group-soul 
its own quota of evolved quality. Thus in time 
many different qualities are developed within 
each group-soul, and of course manifest them- 
selves as inherent in every animal which is 
an expression of it. Hence come the definite 
instincts with which certain creatures are born. 
The duckling, the moment it is set free from 
the egg, seeks the water and can swim fear- 



44 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

lessly, even though it may have been hatched by 
a hen which dreads water, and is terribly wor- 
ried to find her charges rushing to what she sup- 
poses to be destruction. But that fragment of a 
group-soul which is functioning through the 
duckling knows perfectly well from previous 
experience that the water is its natural element, 
and the tiny body fearlessly carries out its 
behests. 

All the while within each group-soul the 
tendency to further and further subdivision is 
steadily working. It manifests itself in a 
phenomenon which, though upon a higher plane, 
has a curious resemblance to the way in which a 
cell divides. In the group-soul, which may be 
thought of as vividly animating a great mass of 
matter on the mental plane, a kind of scarcely 
perceptible film appears, as we might suppose a 
sort of barrier gradually to form itself across the 
bucket. The water at first filters through this 
barrier to some extent, but nevertheless the 
glasses of water taken out from one side of that 
barrier are always returned to the same side, so 
that by degrees the water on one side becomes 
differentiated from the water on the other, and 
then the barrier gradually densities and becomes 
impenetrable, so that we have eventually two 
buckets instead of one. 

This process is constantly repeated, until by 



THE ANIMAL GROUP-SOUL 45 

the time that we reach the really higher animals 
a comparatively small number of bodies is 
attached to each group-soul. It is found that 
the individualization which lifts an entity 
definitely from the animal kingdom into the 
human, can take place only from certain types 
of animals. Only among domesticated creatures, 
and by no means among all classes of even those, 
does this individualization occur. It must of 
course be remembered that we are very little 
more than half through the evolution of this 
chain of worlds, and it is only at the end of this 
evolution that the animal kingdom is expected 
to attain humanity. Naturally, therefore, any 
animal which is now attaining or even approach- 
ing individualization must be very remarkably 
in advance of the others, and the number of such 
cases is consequently very small. Still they do 
occasionally occur, and they are of extreme 
interest to us as indicating the manner in which 
we ourselves came in existence in the remote 
past. The lunar animal kingdom, out of which 
we were individualized, was at a somewhat lower 
level than the animal kingdom of the present 
day; but the principle adopted seems to have 
been almost precisely the same. 



Chapter VIII 

THE UPWAED CUKVE 

Before explaining this in detail we must refer 
once more to Plate IV. It will be remembered 
that the variously coloured bands which occupy 
the principal part of this diagram are intended 
to signify various stages in the upward progress 
of the monadic essence. In its downward 
course, which is indicated by the column to 
the left of the diagram, it simply aggregates 
round itself the different kinds of matter on 
the various planes, evolving that matter by 
accustoming and adapting it to convey vibra- 
tions and impressions, and at the same time 
acquiring for itself the power to receive and 
respond readily to these impressions at their 
respective levels. But when it has reached the 
lowest point of its immersion in matter, and 
turns to begin the grand upward sweep of 
evolution towards divinity, its work then is 
somewhat different. Its object then is to de- 

velope its consciousness fully at these various 

46 



INVOLUTION & EVOLUTION 



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DENSE 



MATTER 



Matter mweral ■ mr&able. m/mai . //man. sp/r/tual 



IV. 



THE UPWARD CURVE 47 

levels, learning to control the bodies which it 
constructs from them, and to use them definitely 
as vehicles, so that they shall not only serve 
as bridges to carry impressions from without 
to the soul, but shall also enable that soul to 
express itself on their several planes through 
their instrumentality. 

In this effort it naturally begins with the 
lowest matter, since its vibrations, though they 
are the largest and coarsest, are also the least 
powerful or penetrating, and therefore the easiest 
to control. Thus it happens that man, although 
possessing in a more or less latent condition so 
many higher principles, is yet at first for a long 
time fully conscious only in his physical body, 
and afterwards very gradually developes the 
consciousness in his astral vehicle, while in 
his mental body it comes at a still later 
stage. 

Turning to Plate IV. we see that we have a 
separate band or ribbon to represent each of the 
kingdoms. It will be noticed that in the band 
corresponding to the mineral kingdom we have 
the full width developed only in the denser part 
of the physical plane, and that in the part of the 
band which corresponds to etheric physical mat- 
ter the band grows steadily narrower as we 
approach the higher planes. This of course 
indicates that in the mineral kingdom the control 



48 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

of the soul over the higher part of the etheric 
matter is not yet perfectly developed. It will 
be noticed also that there is a small point of 
red, showing that a certain amount of conscious- 
ness is already working through astral matter — 
that is to say, that a certain amount of desire is 
already manifesting itself. 

It may seem strange to many people to speak 
of desire in connection with the mineral king- 
dom ; but every chemist knows that in chemical 
affinity we have already a very distinct mani- 
festation of preference on the part of various 
so-called elements; and what is that but a com- 
mencement of desire? One element has so 
strong a desire for the company of another that 
it will instantly forsake, in order to join it, any 
other substance with which it may happen to be 
in association. Indeed, it is by means of our 
knowledge of these likes and dislikes of the 
various elements that we obtain various gases 
when we want them. For example, oxygen and 
hydrogen are combined in water, but if we throw 
sodium into the water we shall find that oxygen 
likes sodium better than hydrogen, and promptly 
deserts the latter to combine with the former; 
so we have a compound called sodium hydroxide 
instead of water, and the released hydrogen 
escapes. Or if we put some zinc filings into 
diluted hydrochloric acid (which is hydrogen 



THE UPWARD CURVE 49 

combined with chlorine) we find that the chlorine 
proceeds to abandon the hydrogen in order to 
join the zinc, so that zinc chloride remains, while 
hydrogen is given off and may be collected ; in 
fact, this is one of the ordinary methods of 
obtaining it. So it will be seen that we are 
justified in speaking of the action of desire in 
the mineral kingdom. 

If we now look at the band which symbolizes 
the vegetable kingdom we shall see that it is of 
full width not only in the dense physical, but 
also in the etheric part. We shall see also that 
the point indicating desire is more fully de- 
veloped, indicating a far greater capacity of 
utilizing the lower astral matter. Those who 
have studied botany will be aware that likes and 
dislikes (that is to say, forms of desire) are very 
much more prominent in the vegetable world 
than in the mineral, and that many plants 
exhibit a great deal of ingenuity and sagacity 
in attaining their ends, limited though these 
ends may be as regarded from our point of 
view. 

When we turn to the band representing the 

animal kingdom we find that consciousness has 

advanced very much further. It will be noticed 

that the band is of full width not only through 

the whole of the physical plane, but in the 

lowest sub-plane of the astral as well, showing 
4 



50 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

that the animal is capable to the fullest possible 
extent of experiencing the lower desires, although 
the rapid narrowing of the band as we reach the 
higher sub-planes shows that his capacity for the 
higher desires is much more limited. Still it 
does exist ; and so it happens that in exceptional 
cases he is capable of manifesting an exceedingly 
high quality of affection or devotion. 

It will be observed also that the band repre- 
senting the animal kingdom ends in a point of 
green, showing that at this stage there is already 
a development of intelligence, employing mental 
matter for its manifestation. It used at one 
time to be supposed that reason was the quality 
which distinguished man from the animals — that 
he possessed this faculty, while they had only 
instinct. As regards the higher domestic 
animals, however, that is certainly a mistake; 
anyone who has kept a dog or a cat, and made a 
friend of him (as assuredly anyone who keeps a 
pet animal ought to do) will surely have observed 
that such creatures undoubtedly do exercise the 
power of reason from cause to effect, although 
naturally the lines along which their reason can 
work are few and limited, and the faculty itself 
is far less powerful than ours. In the case of 
the average animal the point is quite correctly 
shown as embracing only the lowest variety of 
reason, acting in the matter of the lowest 



THE UPWARD CURVE 51 

subdivision of the mental plane; but with the 
highly developed domestic animal the point 
might readily extend even to the highest of 
the four lower levels, though, of course it would 
remain only a point, and by no means the full 
width of the band. 



Chapter IX 

HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 

When we turn to the consideration of the band 
of colour which represents humanity, we at once 
note several quite new features. In this case the 
band retains its full width not only through the 
whole of the physical plane, but also through the 
whole of the astral, showing that a man is 
capable of all varieties of desire to the fullest 
possible extent, the highest as well as the lowest. 
It also exhibits the full width in the lowest level 
of the mental plane, indicating that as far as 
that level is concerned, man's reasoning faculty 
is fully developed. Higher than that, however, 
the development is not yet full ; but an entirely 
new factor is introduced in the presence of the 
dark blue triangle on the higher mental plane, 
indicating the possession by the man of a causal 
body and a permanent reincarnating ego. This 
blue triangle corresponds to the other triangle in 
the circle which is seen in Plate III. In the case 

of the great majority of mankind the point 

52 



HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 53 

which indicates consciousness of any sort upon 
the higher mental levels does not rise beyond 
the third or lowest of them. It is only very 
gradually, as his development progresses, that 
the ego is able to raise his consciousness to the 
second or the first of these sub-planes. 

It is not, of course, implied that the man can 
function consciously at these heights as yet. In 
the lower types of men, desire is still emphatically 
the most prominent feature, though the mental 
development has also proceeded to some extent. 
Such a man during life would have a dim con- 
sciousness in his astral body while asleep, and 
after death he would be very fully conscious and 
active on the lower astral sub-planes. In fact, 
that lower astral life would probably form nearly 
the whole of the interval between his incarna- 
tions, for as yet he would have practically 
nothing of the life of the heaven-world. The 
consciousness of the man at this level is un- 
doubtedly centred in quite the lower part of the 
astral body, and his life is principally governed 
by sensations connected with the physical plane. 

The ordinary man of our own race is still living 
almost entirely in his sensations, although the 
higher astral is coming into play; but still for 
him the prominent question which guides his 
conduct is not in the least what is right or 
reasonable to do, but simply what he himself 



54 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

desires to do. The more cultured and developed 
among us are beginning to govern desire by 
reason — that is to say, the centre of conscious- 
ness is gradually transferring itself from the 
higher astral to the lower mental. Slowly as 
the man progresses it moves up further still, and 
the man begins to be dominated by principle 
rather than by interest and desire. 

To be able to use these different bodies as de- 
finite vehicles in which the soul can consciously 
function is another and still greater develop- 
ment. Any fairly advanced and cultured man 
among the higher races of mankind has already 
consciousness fully developed in the astral body, 
and is perfectly capable of employing it as a 
vehicle if he were only in the habit of doing so. 
But to do this a definite effort would be necessary. 
The enormous majority of these men know 
nothing at all about the astral body or its uses, 
and so naturally make no effort of any kind. 
They have behind them the tradition of the 
immemorial custom of a long series of lives in 
which the astral faculties have not been used, for 
these faculties have been gradually and slowly 
growing inside a shell, something as a chicken 
grows inside the egg. The shell is composed of 
the great mass of self-centred thought in which 
the ordinary man is so hopelessly entombed. 
Whatever may have been the thoughts chiefly 



HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 55 

engaging his mind during the day, he usually 
continues them when falling asleep, and is thus 
surrounded by so dense a wall of his own making 
that he practically knows nothing of what is 
going on outside. Occasionally, but very rarely, 
some violent impact from without, or some 
strong desire of his own from within, may tear 
aside this curtain of mist for the moment and 
permit him to receive some definite impression ; 
but even then the fog closes in again almost 
immediately, and he dreams on unobservantly 
as before. It is obvious that this shell may be 
broken in various ways. 

First. — In the far distant future the slow but 
sure evolution of the man will undoubtedly 
gradually dissipate the curtain of mist, so that 
he will become conscious by degrees of the 
mighty world of intensely active life which 
surrounds him. 

Secondly. — The man himself, having learnt the 
facts of the case, may by steady and persistent 
effort from within clear away the mist, and 
gradually overcome the inertia resulting from 
ages of inactivity. This is, of course, merely the 
hastening of the natural process, and will be 
in no way harmful if the man's development is 
proceeding with equal rapidity along other lines. 
But if he should gain this awakening without 
having attained at the same time the strength, 



56 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

knowledge and moral development which would 
naturally have preceded it, he would be liable 
to the double danger of misusing such powers as 
he might acquire, and of being overwhelmed by 
fear in the presence of forces which he could 
neither understand nor control. 

Thirdly. — It may happen that some accident, 
or some unlawful use of magical ceremonies, may 
so rend the veil that it may never be wholly 
closed ; and then the man is left in the terrible 
condition so well described by Madame Blavatsky 
in her story of " A Bewitched Life," or by Bulwer 
Lytton in his powerful novel Zanoni. 

Fourthly. — Some friend who knows the man 
thoroughly, and believes him capable of facing 
the dangers of the astral plane and doing good 
unselfish work there, may act upon this cloud - 
shell from without and rouse the man to definite 
action. This is the awakening to which refer- 
ence is made in our books, and naturally the 
man who does this undertakes a very serious 
responsibility towards the man whom he thus 
arouses. The elder worker assumes this respon- 
sibility only when by long and intimate acquaint- 
ance he has become reasonably certain that the 
younger possesses in some measure all the 
qualifications mentioned in Chapter XIV. of 
Invisible Helpers ; but the need of helpers is so 
great that every aspirant may be absolutely 



HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS 57 

certain that there will not be a day's delay in 
arousing him as soon as he is seen to be ready. 
Meantime any who feel themselves overlooked 
have always the resource of adopting the 
second method to which I referred above; but 
before doing so they would be well advised to 
assure themselves absolutely and beyond any 
possibility of doubt that they possess the 
requisite development along other lines, as 
otherwise their fall will be speedy and certain. 

But, as has been explained in the books, a 
great deal of work may be done, and constantly 
is done, short of this full awakening. A man 
who falls asleep with the definite intention in 
his mind of doing a certain piece of work will 
assuredly go and attempt to carry out his inten- 
tion as soon as he is freed from his physical 
body; but having done his best in connection 
with that particular case, he is almost certain to 
let the fog close round him once more, simply 
because of the fact that he has for ages been un- 
accustomed to initiate a fresh line of action when 
functioning apart from the physical brain. Many 
of our members make a practice of thus ensuring 
that they may perform at least one helpful 
action each night ; and of course in many cases 
the action is such as to occupy the whole of the 
time spent in sleep, so that they are practically 
exerting themselves to the fullest extent possible 



58 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

for them. We should also remember that it is 
by no means only during sleep than we can give 
effective help; the strong living thought can 
be sent out at any moment, and can never 
fail in producing its effect. But the difference 
between the one who has been definitely 
awakened and the one who has not, is that 
in the case of the former the curtain of mist 
has been for ever dissipated, while in the latter 
it merely opens for the time and then shuts down 
as impenetrably as before. 



Chapter X 

THE THIED OUTPOURING 

In order to understand the formation of the 
soul in man there is another great factor which 
must be taken into account. This is the third 
outpouring of the divine life, which comes from 
the first aspect of the Logos, and makes within 
each man that distinctive "spirit of the man 
which goeth upward " in contradistinction to 
"the spirit of the beast which goeth down- 
ward" — which, being interpreted, means that 
while the soul of the animal pours back after 
the death of the body into the group-soul or 
block to which it belongs, the divine spirit in 
man cannot so fall back again, but rises ever 
onward and upward towards the divinity from 
whom it came. This third wave of life is repre- 
sented by the band on the right in Plate III., 
and it will be noticed that in this case the 
outpouring does not become darker or more 
materialized as it proceeds. Of itself it descends 

no lower than the buddhic plane, though its 

59 



60 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

down-stretching points rest on the atomic 
mental. There it hovers like a mighty cloud, 
waiting for an opportunity of effecting a junc- 
tion with the second outpouring, which is slowly 
rising to meet it. Although this cloud seems to 
exercise a constant attraction upon the essence 
below it, yet the development which makes the 
union a possibility must be made from below. 

The illustration usually given in the East to 
help the neophyte to comprehend this process 
is that of the formation of the water-spout. 
There also we have a great cloud hovering 
above the sea, on the surface of which waves 
are constantly forming and moving. Presently 
a great finger is extended from the cloud — an 
inverted cone of violently whirling vapour. 
Underneath this a vortex is rapidly formed in 
the ocean, but instead of being a depression in 
its surface, as is the ordinary whirlpool, it is a 
whirling cone rising above that surface. 
Steadily the two draw closer and closer to- 
gether, until they come so near that the power 
of attraction is strong enough to overleap the 
intervening space, and suddenly a great column 
of mingled water and vapour is formed where 
nothing existed before. 

In just the same way the group-souls of the 
animal kingdom are constantly throwing parts 
of themselves into incarnation, like the tempor- 



THE THIRD OUTPOURING 61 

ary waves on the surface of the sea, and the 
process of differentiation continues until at last 
a time comes when one of these waves rises high 
enough to enable a down-stretching point from 
the hovering cloud to effect a junction with it, 
and it is then drawn up into a new existence 
neither in the cloud nor in the sea, but between 
the two and partaking of the nature of both. 
Thus it is separated from the group-soul of 
which hitherto it has formed a part, and falls 
back again into the sea no more. 

Anyone who has made a friend of a really 
intelligent domestic animal will readily under- 
stand how this happens, for he will have seen 
the intense devotion manifested by the animal 
for the master whom he loves, and the great 
mental efforts which he makes to understand 
his master's wishes and to please him. Ob- 
viously both the animal's intellect and his 
power of affection and devotion will be enor- 
mously developed by these efforts; and the 
time will come when in this way he will 
raise himself so much above the general level 
of his group-soul that he will absolutely break 
away from it, and in doing so become a fit 
vehicle for this third outpouring, by the junction 
with which the individual is formed, which 
thereafter follows its own course of evolution 
back again to divinity. 



62 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

It is sometimes asked why, if the essence was 
divine in the beginning, and returns again to 
divinity at the end — if the human monad was 
all-wise and all-good when it started on its long 
journey through matter — it was necessary for 
it to go through all this evolution, including as 
it does much sorrow and suffering, simply to 
return to its source in the end. But this ques- 
tion is based on a complete misconception of 
the facts. When what is sometimes, though 
perhaps inappropriately, called the human 
monad came forth from the divine it was not a 
monad at all — still less an all -wise and all-good 
one. There was no developed individualization 
in it — it was simply a mass of monadic essence. 
The difference between its condition when 
issuing forth and when returning is exactly 
like that between a great mass of shining 
nebulous matter and the solar system which is 
eventually formed out of it. The nebula is 
beautiful, no doubt, but vague and useless; 
the sun formed from it by slow evolution pours 
life and heat and light upon many worlds and 
their inhabitants. \ 

I , — — ■ - I 

Or we may take another analogy. The 
human body is composed of countless millions 
of tiny particles, and some of them are con- 
stantly being thrown off from it. Suppose that 
it were possible for each of these particles to go 



THE THIRD OUTPOURING 63 

through some kind of evolution by means of 
which it would in time become a human being, 
we should not say that because it had been in 
a certain sense human at the beginning of that 
evolution, it had therefore not gained anything 
when it reached the end. The essence comes 
forth as a mere outpouring of force, even 
though it be divine force ; it returns in the form 
of thousands of millions of mighty adepts, each 
capable of himself developing into a Logos. 

It is this wonderful course of evolution that 
we shall try to indicate to a certain extent in 
our series of illustrations, and though the most 
that we can do is to endeavour to pourtray the 
change which takes place in the various vehicles 
of the man as he developes, it is yet hoped that 
some idea of the progress may thus be conveyed 
to those who are as yet unable to see. There is 
one point in connection with the junction which 
we have been trying to describe which requires 
further explanation. A curious change has 
taken place in the position of the monadic 
essence. All the way through its long ages of 
evolution in all the previous kingdoms, it has 
invariably been the ensouling and energizing 
principle — the force behind whatever forms it 
may have temporarily occupied. But now that 
which has hitherto been the ensouler becomes 
itself in turn the ensouled; from that monadic 



64: MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

essence which was part of the animal group-soul 
is now formed the causal body — a splendid ovoid 
form of living light, into which the still more 
glorious light and life from above has descended, 
and by means of which that higher life is enabled 
to express itself as the human individuality. 

Nor, as I have explained when writing upon 
this subject in The Christian Creed, should any 
think that it is an unworthy goal to reach as a 
result of so long and weary an evolution, thus to 
have become a vehicle of this last and grandest 
outpouring of the divine Spirit ; for it must be 
remembered that without the preparation of this 
vehicle to act as the connecting link, the im- 
mortal individuality of man could never come 
into being. No fragment of the work which has 
been done through all these ages is lost, and 
nothing has been useless. For the upper triad 
thus formed becomes a transcendent unity, u not 
by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by 
taking of the manhood into God." Without that 
long course of evolution this final consummation 
could never have been reached, that man should 
rise to the level of divinity, and that thus the 
very Logos Himself should be made more perfect, 
in that He has of His own offspring those upon 
whom that love which is the essence of His 
divine nature has for the first time been fully 
lavished, and by whom it can be returned. 




THE THIRD OUTPOURING 65 

A stage of development much in advance of 
the ordinary man is typified for us by the band 
on the extreme right of the diagram in Plate 
I V. There we have the image of the highly spirit- 
ual man, whose consciousness has already evolved 
even beyond the causal body, so that he is able 
to function freely upon the buddhic plane, and 
has also a consciousness (at least when out of 
the body), upon a plane still higher than that, 
as is indicated by the lilac point. It will be 
seen that in his case the centre of consciousness 
(typified by the widest part of the ribbon) is not 
at all, as before, upon the physical and astral 
planes, but lies between the higher mental and 
the buddhic. The higher mental and the higher 
astral are in him much more developed than 
their lower parts, and although he still retains 
his physical body, as is shown by the fact that 
the lower point of the band still reaches the 
lowest physical limit, yet this is only a point, 
indicating that he holds this physical form 
merely for the convenience of working in it, and 
not in any way because his thoughts and desires 
are fixed there. He has long ago transcended 
all karma which could bind him to incarnation ; 
and if he now takes upon himself the vehicles 
of the lower planes, it is simply in order that 
through them he may be able to work for the 

good of humanity, and to pour out at these 
5 



66 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

levels influence which otherwise could not de- 
scend thereto. For the vibrations of certain 
types of the divine force are in themselves too 
fine to be appreciated by the grosser essence of 
these lower planes ; but if they descend to them 
through the channel of one whose vehicles at 
these levels are perfectly pure, then they can 
be appreciated even down here, and so their 
work may be done. 

When this causal body is newly formed it is 
transparent yet iridescent, like a gigantic soap- 
bubble, when viewed by the higher clairvoyant 
sight — that is to say, when examined at its own 
level by one who has fully developed the faculties 
of his own causal body, for it is only to such 
sight that it would be visible at all. But at this 
stage it also resembles the soap-bubble in being 
almost empty in appearance, for the divine force 
which is really contained within it has as yet 
had no time to develope its latent qualities by 
learning to vibrate in response to impacts from 
without, and consequently there is little colour 
to show. What little there is comes because 
certain qualities have been already evolved 
within the group-soul of which that causal body 
previously formed a part, and it is in process of 
communicating these to the force within, so that 
there is already a certain vibration at the rates 
corresponding to these; and consequently faint 





Photochromogravurc, Lyons & London 



V 



THE THIRD OUTPOURING 67 

indications of these rates of vibrations are even 
now observable within the form as dawning 
gleams of colour. Plate V. will give us some 
idea of its appearance at (or soon after) this 
stage, and it may be taken to represent the 
causal body of the primitive man. The grey 
shading at the left side of this illustration must 
not be taken as indicating any quality in the 
body ; in fact it is not really present in it at all, 
but is introduced by the artist simply to give the 
effect of rotundity to the bubble. 

But although the man now possesses a causal 
body, he is very far from being sufficiently 
conscious to receive or respond to impressions 
at that level; and since the appointed method 
for the evolution of his latent qualities is, as has 
been said, by means of impacts from without, it 
is obviously necessary that he should descend far 
enough to meet such impacts as can affect him. 
Therefore it is that the method of progress 
destined for him is that by reincarnation — that 
is to say, by putting forth part of himself into 
these lower planes for the sake of the experience 
to be gained there, and of the qualities which 
that experience developes, and then withdrawing 
back again into himself, bearing with him the 
results of his endeavour. Indeed, this putting 
forth of a part of himself into incarnation may 
be not inaptly likened to an investment; he 



68 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

expects, if all goes well, to reclaim not only the 
whole of his capital but also a considerable 
amount of interest, and he usually obtains this. 
But as with other investments, there is occa- 
sionally an opportunity of loss as well as of gain ; 
for it is possible that some portion of that which 
he puts down may become so entangled with 
the lower matter through which it has to work, 
that it may be impossible wholly to reclaim 
it. The consideration of how this may happen 
hardly belongs to our present subject, but it 
will be found fully explained in The Astral 
Plane, p. 50. 

It is not my purpose here to present the 
numerous arguments in favour of the doctrine 
of reincarnation. Those will be found fully de- 
tailed in the second of our Theosophical Manuals. 
In this book I am simply endeavouring to deal 
with the facts as seen, for it must be remembered 
that this process of reincarnation can be followed 
through all its stages by sufficiently developed 
clairvoyance, and that therefore for many 
Theosophical students it is not a hypothesis, 
but a matter of direct knowledge. 

The soul puts himself down under the impulse 
of what in the East is called Trishna, the thirst 
for manifested existence, the desire to feel him- 
self alive. He plunges about in the sea of 
matter, he strengthens self by selfishness, and 



THE THIRD OUTPOURING 69 

shows himself to astral vision under the very 
unlovely guise depicted in Plate VII. Very 
gradually he learns that there is a higher 
evolution, and that the strong shell of selfish- 
ness (which was necessary for the formation of 
a powerful centre) becomes a hindrance to the 
growth of that centre after it has once been 
formed, and so must be broken up and thrown 
aside. Slowly through many incarnations his 
astral presentment developes from that of Plate 
VII. to that of Plate X., and later still to that of 
Plate XXIII. We shall try to follow this evolu- 
tion, and illustrate it at its different stages. 



Chapter XI 

HOW MAN EVOLVES 

He puts himself down first into the matter 

nearest to him, that of the lower levels of the 

mental plane. Immediately, and in a certain 

sense automatically, a vesture of this matter is 

drawn round him, a vesture which is an exact 

expression of such qualities as already exist in 

him, so far at least as they can be expressed at 

that level. 

For it must never be forgotten that each stage 

in the descent means submission to limitation, 

and that consequently no expression of the soul 

upon any lower level can ever be a perfect 

expression. It is merely an indication of its 

qualities, just as a picture painted by an artist 

is a representation in two dimensions of a scene 

existing (or imagined as existing) in three 

dimensions. The picture represents the scene 

as nearly as it can be represented on a flat 

surface by means of perspective, but in reality 

almost every line and angle in it must of 

70 



HOW MAN EVOLVES 7l 

necessity be unlike the line or angle which it 
is intended to image. In exactly the same way 
the true quality as it exists in the soul cannot 
be expressed in matter of any lower level; the 
vibrations of the lower matter are altogether too 
dull and sluggish to represent it, the string is 
not sufficiently stretched to enable it to respond 
to the note which resounds from above. It 
can, however, be tuned to correspond with it 
in a lower octave, like a man's voice singing 
in unison with a boy's, expressing the same 
sound as nearly as the capabilities of the inferior 
organism permit. 

Thus the colour which expresses a certain 
quality in the causal body will express it also 
in the mind body and even in the astral body, 
but the colour will be less delicate, less luminous 
and ethereal as we descend. The difference 
between these octaves of colour is very far 
greater than can be in any way represented 
upon paper or canvas; we can endeavour to 
image it only by stages or qualities, for even 
the next octave above the physical is entirely 
beyond the conception of our mind as long as 
it works under the limitation of the physical 
brain. The lowest astral colours may be thought 
of as dark and coarse, and they certainly are so 
as compared to the higher and purer hues, but 
at least they are luminous in their coarseness; 



72 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

they are not so much dark colour in our ordinary 
sense of the word, as dimly-glowing fire. 

At each stage as we ascend we shall find 
that while the higher matter exhibits a splendid 
power of expression of the nobler qualities, it 
gradually loses the power to express some which 
are lower. The peculiarly unpleasant hue which 
represents coarse sensuality in the astral body is 
quite incapable of reproducing itself in mental 
matter. It may be objected that this surely 
should not be so, as a man may undoubtedly 
have a sensual thought ; but this idea does not 
seem accurately to represent the facts. A man 
may form a mental image which evokes sensual 
feeling in him, but the thought and the image 
will express themselves in astral matter, and 
not in mental. It will leave a very definite 
impression of its peculiar hue upon the astral 
body, but in the mental body it will intensify 
the colours which represent its concomitant 
mental evils of selfishness, conceit and decep- 
tion. These in their turn will find no expression 
whatever in the resplendent glory of the causal 
body, but every intensification of them in the 
lower vehicle, every indulgence in them down 
here, tends somewhat to dim the luminosity of 
the colours representing the development of the 
opposite virtues in that higher existence which 
is so much nearer to reality. 



HOW MAN EVOLVES 73 

The process by which the colours are produced 
works always from below upward. The man 
feels some impact from without, and in response 
to it a wave of emotion of some sort is awakened 
within him. That means that for the moment, 
while the emotion endures, the particular type 
of vibration (which represents it) is predominant 
in the astral body, as will presently be shown in 
our illustrations. After a time the emotion dies 
down, and the colour representing it fades away 
— but not entirely. A certain proportion of the 
matter of the astral body is normally vibrating 
at the especial rate appropriate to that emotion, 
and every great outburst of it adds somewhat 
to this proportion. 

For example, most ordinary men have within 
them a certain amount of irritability, which 
expresses itself in the astral body as a scarlet" 
cloud. When the man manifests that irri- 
tability by some special outburst of temper the 
whole astral vehicle is temporarily suffused with 
scarlet, as will presently be shown. The fit of 
passion subsides, and the scarlet flush dies away, 
but it has left its traces behind, for there is 
a slight permanent addition to the size of the 
scarlet cloud of irritability, and the whole 
matter of the astral body is a little more ready 
than before to respond to the vibration of anger 
when any opportunity offers. Naturally, exactly 



74 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

the same course is followed in the case of any 
other emotion, whether it be good or bad; and 
thus we see the clear manifestation in matter 
of the moral law, that every time we yield to a 
passion of any kind, we make it a little more 
difficult for ourselves to resist its next attack; 
while every successful effort at its repression 
makes the next victory a little easier. 

The comparatively permanent colour in the 
astral body means a persistent vibration, which 
in course of time produces its due effect upon 
the mental body also, creating a vibration of 
similar character at that much higher level — 
provided, that is, that the vibration is of 
such a character as can be reproduced in 
that finer matter. It is by the same method 
of exciting sympathetic vibration that the 
higher qualities developed by the life on lower 
planes are gradually built into the causal body 
itself, though at that level, fortunately for us, 
only the effect of the loftier emotions can be 
recorded. 

So, in the course of his many lives, man 
developes within himself many qualities, some 
good, some evil ; but while all good development 
is steadily stored up and accumulated within 
the causal body, that which is evil can express 
itself only through the lower vehicles, and so is 
comparatively impermanent. Under the mighty 



HOW MAN EVOLVES 75 

law of divine justice, every man receives abso- 
lutely the exact results of his own action, 
whether it be bad or good; but the evil 
necessarily works out its effects upon the lower 
planes, because it is only in the matter of those 
planes that its vibrations can be expressed, 
and it has no overtones capable of awaken- 
ing a response in the causal body. Its force, 
therefore, is all expended at its own level, and 
it reacts in its entirety upon its creator in his 
astral and physical life, whether it be in this 
or in future incarnations. 

The good action or thought produces its 
results upon these lower planes too, but in 
addition to that it has the immensely higher 
and permanent effect upon the causal body 
which is so prominent a factor in the evolution 
of man. Thus, while all alike produce their 
results down here, and manifest them in the 
various temporary vehicles, it is the good 
qualities only which are retained as so much 
definite gain to the real man. The evil meets 
him again and again on his successive descents 
into incarnation, until he has vanquished it, 
and finally rooted out from his vehicles all 
tendency to respond to it — until, in fact, he is 
no longer liable to be swept away by any 
passion or desire, but has learnt to rule himself 
from within. 



Chapter XII 

WHAT HIS BODIES SHOW US 

This process of learning is a gradual one, and 
the earlier manifestations of the undeveloped 
man upon the lower planes are by no means 
beautiful to see. We have not chosen absolutely 
the primitive man for illustration, because in his 
case there is as yet so very little to illustrate ; 
but the savage whose causal body is represented 
in Plate V. would be likely to possess much 
such a mental body as is shown in Plate VI. , and 
an astral body of the type given in Plate VII. 

It must be understood that all these bodies 
occupy the same space, and interpenetrate one 
another ; so that in looking clairvoyantly at the 
savage we should observe his physical body 
surrounded by a luminous ovoid mist, but 
that mist would present to us the appearance 
of Plate V., Plate VI., or Plate VII., accord- 
ing to the type of clairvoyance which we 
employed. Using our own astral senses, we 

should see his astral body only, and should 

76 



WHAT HIS BODIES SHOW US 11 

learn from that what passions or emotions 
or sensations he was at the moment experi- 
encing, and to which of these he was in the 
habit of yielding himself frequently. This is 
the field of the manifestation of desire — the 
mirror in which every feeling is instantly 
reflected, in which every thought even which 
has in it anything that touches the personal 
self must express itself. From its material a 
bodily form is given to the dark elementals 
which men create and set in motion by evil 
wishes and malicious feelings; from it also are 
bodied forth the beneficent elementals called 
into life by good wishes, gratitude and love. 

As might naturally be expected, there is little 
of permanency about its manifestations; its 
colours, its brilliancy, the rate of its pulsations, 
are all changing from moment to moment. An 
outburst of anger will charge the whole astral 
body with deep-red flashes on a black ground; 
a sudden fright will instantaneously veil every- 
thing in a mist of ghastly, livid grey. 
Nevertheless, there will be moments when even 
this fluctuating astral vehicle is comparatively 
at rest, and it will then show a definite group 
of colours which retain more or less the same 
arrangement. Such a moment is that chosen 
for our illustration in Plate VII., and from 
this, as we shall presently see, a good deal 



78 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

of information about the man may be 
obtained. 

Using our mental sight, it would be the 
mental body of our savage friend that we 
should perceive, and it would probably resemble 
that illustrated in Plate VI. As far as its 
colours are the same, this body would agree 
fairly with the astral in a condition of repose, 
but it would also be much more than this, for 
in it would appear whatever might be developed 
in the man of spirituality and intellectuality — 
not much yet, perhaps, in the case of our savage, 
but of considerable importance later on, as we 
shall see in due course. From this mental body 
we are therefore able to deduce what kind of 
man he is, and what sort of use he has made 
of his life so far in this incarnation. 

But if we are fortunate enough to be able to 
apply to the problem the perfect power of vision 
exercised through our causal body, then what we 
see is the causal body of the savage, and from 
that we know how far his real life as a soul has 
advanced, and what progress the ego has made 
in its unfoldment towards divinity. It will be 
seen that, before the trained clairvoyant who is 
able to employ all these various degrees of sight 
in turn, the entire life of the man in all its 
stages lies open like a book ; for on these higher 
planes no man can hide or disguise himself; 



WHAT HIS BODIES SHOW US 79 

what he truly is, that he is seen to be by any 
unprejudiced spectator. 

Unprejudiced, I say; because we must never 
forget that each sees the other through the 
medium of his own vehicles, and so is somewhat 
in the position of one looking at a landscape 
through coloured glass. Until he has learnt to 
make allowance for this influence, he will be 
liable to consider as most prominent in the man 
at whom he is looking just those characteristics 
to which he finds himself most ready to respond ; 
but with a little careful practice he soon frees 
himself from the distortion produced by this 
personal equation, and is able to read clearly and 
accurately. 



Chapter XIII 

COLOUES AND THEIR MEANING- 

Before we can intelligently study the detail 
of these various bodies, we must familiarize 
ourselves with the general meaning of the 
various shades of colour in them, as indicated in 
our frontispiece. It will be realised that almost 
infinite variety is possible in their combination. 
I am endeavouring to give, as nearly as possible, 
the exact shade which expresses the unmixed 
emotion whose name is attached to it; but 
human emotions are hardly ever unmixed, and 
so we have constantly to classify or to analyse 
indeterminate hues in the formation of which 
many factors have played their part. 

Anger, for example, is represented by scarlet, 
and love by crimson and rose; but both anger 
and love are often deeply tinged with selfishness, 
and just so far as that is the case will the purity 
of their respective colours be dimmed by the 
hard brown-grey which is so characteristic of this 
vice. Or again, either of them may be mingled 



¥ 



COLOURS AND THEIR MEANING 81 

with pride, and that would instantly show itself 
by a tinge of deep orange. Many examples of 
such commingling, and of the resultant shades 
of colour, will be seen as we continue our 
investigation; but our first endeavour must be 
to learn to read the meaning of the simpler hues. 
We will give here a list of some of these which 
are most common. 

Black. — Thick black clouds in the astral body 
indicate hatred and malice. When a person 
unhappily gives way to a fit of passionate anger, 
the terrible thought-forms of hate may generally 
be seen floating in his aura like coils of heavy, 
poisonous smoke. 

Red. — Deep-red flashes, usually on a black 
ground, show anger; and this will be more or 
less tinged with brown as there is more or less 
of direct selfishness in the type of anger. What 
is sometimes called " noble indignation" on 
behalf of some one oppressed or injured may 
express itself in flashes of brilliant scarlet on the 
ordinary background of the aura. 

Lurid, sanguinary red — a colour which is 
quite unmistakable, though not easy to describe 
— indicates sensuality. 

Brown. — Dull brown-red, almost rust-colour, 

shows avarice ; and it usually arranges itself in 

parallel bars across the astral body, giving a 

very curious appearance. 
6 



82 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

Dull, hard brown-grey signifies selfishness, 
and is unfortuately one of the very commonest 
colours in the astral body. 

Greenish-brown, lit up by deep red or scarlet 
flashes, denotes jealousy, and in the case of the 
ordinary man there is nearly always a good deal 
of this colour present when he is what is called 
"in love." 

Grey. — Heavy leaden grey expresses deep 
depression, and where this is habitual its 
appearance is sometimes indescribably gloomy 
and saddening. This colour also has the curious 
characteristic of arranging itself in parallel 
lines, as has that of avarice, and both 
give the impression that their unfortunate 
victim is imprisoned within a kind of astral 
cage. 

Livid grey, a most hideous and frightful hue, 
shows fear. 

Crimson. — This colour indicates love, and is 
often the most beautiful feature in the vehicles 
of the average man. Naturally it varies very 
greatly with the nature of the love. ; It may be 
dull, heavy and deeply tinged with the brown 
of selfishness, if the so-called love occupies 
itself chiefly with the consideration of how 
much affection is received from somebody else, 
how much return it is getting for its investment^ 
But if the love be of that kind that thinks 



COLOURS AND THEIR MEANING 83 

never of itself at all, nor of what it receives, 
but only of how much it can give, and how 
entirely it can pour itself forth as a willing 
sacrifice for the sake of the loved one, then it 
will express itself in the most lovely rose-colour; 
and when this rose-colour is exceptionally 
brilliant and tinged with lilac, it shows the 
more spiritual love for humanity. The inter- 
mediate possibilities are countless; and the 
affection may of course be tinged in various 
other ways, as by pride or jealousy. 

Orange. — This colour is always significant of 
pride or ambition, and has almost as many 
variations as the last-mentioned, according to 
the nature of the pride or the ambition. It is 
not infrequently found in union with irritability. 

Yellow. — This is a very good colour, implying 
always the possession of intellectuality. Its 
shades vary very much, and it may be much 
complicated by the admixture of various other 
hues. Generally speaking, it has a deeper and 
duller tint if the intellect is directed chiefly into 
lower channels, most especially if the objects are 
selfish; but it becomes brilliantly golden, and 
rises gradually to a beautiful clear and luminous 
lemon or primrose yellow, as it is addressed to 
higher and more unselfish objects. 

Green. — No colour has more varied significa- 
tion than this, and it requires some study to 



84 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

interpret it correctly. Most of its manifesta- 
tions indicate a kind of adaptability, at first 
evil and deceitful, but eventually good and 
sympathetic. 

Grey-green, a peculiar shade of it which can 
hardly be described otherwise than by the 
epithet " slimy," signifies deceit and cunning, 
and will be found very prominently in the astral 
body of most savages. Unfortunately it is by 
no means rare among more civilised men, who 
ought long ago to have passed the stage of 
evolution which it indicates. As the man 
advances, this hue improves into a bright 
emerald -green, which still means versatility, 
ingenuity and quickness of resource, but no 
longer implies any evil intent in connection 
with these qualities. It indicates the power 
of "being all things to all men," not now for the 
purpose of tricking or misleading them, but at 
first in order to please them, to obtain their 
praise or their favour, and later on, as under- 
standing developes, for the purpose of helping 
and strengthening them. Eventually it becomes 
a lovely pale, luminous blue-green, such as may 
sometimes be seen in an exceptionally delicate 
sunset sky, and then it shows some of the grandest 
qualities of human nature, the deepest sympathy 
and compassion, with the power of perfect 
adaptability which they only can give. In its 



COLOURS AND THEIR MEANING 85 

earlier developments a bright apple-green seems 
always to accompany strong vitality. 

Blue. — Dark, clear blue usually indicates 
religious feeling, but this also varies immensely 
according to the type of the feeling, its purity 
or bigotry, its selfishness or nobility. It is liable 
to be tinted by almost any of the qualities 
previously mentioned, so that we may have 
any shade from indigo on one side and rich 
deep violet on the other, down to a muddy grey- 
blue which is at the level of the African's fetish- 
worship. The tinge of love or fear, of deceit 
or of pride, may mingle with the hue of 
religion, and thus there is a wide range of 
variation observable. 

Light blue, such as ultramarine or cobalt, 
shows devotion to a noble spiritual ideal, and 
gradually rises to a luminous lilac-blue, which 
indicates the higher spirituality, and is usually 
accompanied by sparkling golden stars, repre- 
senting elevated spiritual aspirations. 

It is easy to understand how almost infinite 
may be the combinations and modifications of all 
these hues, so that the most delicate gradation of 
character or the most evanescent of mingled 
feelings is expressed with the greatest accuracy. 
The general brilliancy of the astral body, the 
comparative definiteness or indefiniteness of its 
outline, and the relative brightness of the 



86 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

different centres of force, are all points which 
have to be taken into consideration in reading 
the full meaning of what is seen. Another fact 
worth mentioning is that developed or develop- 
ing psychical faculties show themselves by means 
of the colours which lie beyond the visible 
spectrum, so that it is impossible to picture them 
with physical hues. The ultra-violet tints de- 
note the higher and purer developments, while 
gruesome combinations of the ultra-red reveal 
the wickedness of the dabbler in evil and selfish 
forms of magic. Occult advancement shows 
itself not only by these colours, but also by the 
greater luminosity of the various bodies, by their 
increased size and more definite outline, as will 
presently be seen in our illustrations. 







■;■'■:.-■ '.: 
.';.■■■;■.■::■' 






- -";C : . : 



/ 



t p 







^ 






o 






VI 



Chapter XIV 

THE SAVAGE 

Applying this information to the consideration 
of the mind-body of our savage in Plate VI., 
certain facts about the man at once become 
obvious. Although on the whole it is a very 
poor and undeveloped mind-body, yet some 
progress has already been made. The dull 
yellow at the top indicates a certain amount of 
intellect, but also shows by the muddiness of the 
colour that it is applied exclusively to selfish 
ends. The devotion denoted by the gray-blue 
must be a fetish-worship, largely tinged with 
fear, and prompted by considerations of self- 
interest; while the muddy crimson on our left 
suggests a commencement of affection which 
must as yet be principally selfish also. The 
band of dull orange implies pride, but of quite 
a low order ; while the large dash of scarlet ex- 
presses a strong tendency to anger, which would 
evidently blaze out upon very slight provocation. 

The broad band of dirty green which occupies 

87 



88 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

so great a portion of the body shows forth deceit, 
treachery and avarice — the latter quality being 
indicated by the brownish tint which is observable. 
At the bottom we notice a sort of deposit of mud 
colour, suggesting general selfishness and the 
absence of any desirable quality. 

It is just that absence of any well-defined 
higher quality which makes us certain that, in 
turning to the corresponding astral body (Plate 
VII.) we shall find it almost entirely uncontrolled. 
Accordingly, we see how enormous a proportion 
of this vehicle of desire is occupied exclusively 
by sensuality, indicated by the very unpleasant 
brown-red which is almost blood-colour. It is 
not easy to reproduce the peculiar lurid tinge 
given by this quality, which is so painfully 
common except among the more advanced 
souls. 

Deceit, selfishness and greed are conspicuous 
here, as might be expected, and fierce anger is 
also implied by the smears and blots of dull 
scarlet. Affection is scarcely indicated at all, 
and such intellect and religious feeling as appear 
are of the lowest possible kind. 

Another point which should be noticed is the 
irregularity of the outline of this astral body, 
the generally blurred effect, and the manner in 
which the colours are arranged. As we pass to 
the vehicles of the more evolved human beings 




vn 



THE SAVAGE 89 

we shall find a considerable improvement in this 
respect. The colours always to some extent 
intermingle and melt into one another, but 
nevertheless in the ordinary man they have a 
tendency to lie in more or less regular bands, 
while the outline of the body becomes fairly 
definite and regular. With our savage, however, 
all is ill-regulated and confused ; he is obviously 
a creature of violent and often vicious impulses 
to which he instantly yields without the 
slightest effort to control them. A very 
unpleasant person altogether; yet every one of 
us has passed through this stage, and by the 
experience gained in it we have been enabled to 
rise out of it to something purer and nobler. 

Only some of the lower negro races and the 
relics of the third root-race now represent a 
stage of evolution as early as this. Many of 
those whom we call savages (as, for example, 
some among the Zulus, the Maoris, or the South 
Sea Islanders) are already considerably developed, 
and would compare favourably with the lower 
specimens of our own civilization. The astral 
bodies of these comparatively superior savages 
are usually intermediates between Plate X. and 
Plate VII., though naturally there is a wide 
range of individual variation. 

It will be very necessary for us to bear 
constantly in mind, in our endeavour to realise 



90 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

the appearance of the various vehicles, that the 
particles of which they are composed are always 
in rapid motion. In certain cases, which will be 
specially mentioned in their turn, there are 
definite bands and clearly defined lines in these 
bodies; but in the vast majority the clouds of 
colour not only melt into one another, but are all 
the while rolling over one another, and appearing 
and disappearing as they roll. Indeed the surface 
of this luminous and brightly-coloured mist 
resembles somewhat the surface of violently 
boiling water in the way in which the particles 
are seen to swirl about, to rise to the surface and 
sink back again, and constantly to change places 
with one another. So that the various colours 
by no means retain always the respective 
positions in which they are represented in our 
illustrations. Yet it is nevertheless true that 
the}' gravitate towards the arrangement indicated 
— that though the yellow, the rose and the blue 
are not always to be found grouped exactly as 
depicted, yet in all their whirlings and rollings 
they remain near the upper part of the oval; 
they are always to be found near the head of 
the physical body, when they exist at all, while 
the colours indicating selfishness, avarice, deceit 
or hatred tend always towards the bottom, and 
the great mass of sensual feeling floats usually 
between the two. 




Phoiochromogravure, Lyons & London 



VIII 



THE SAVAGE 91 

Each of these rates of vibration (which show 
themselves to us as colours) has its own special 
type of astral or mental matter in which it can 
operate most freely, and the average position of 
these colours in the ever-shifting mist-cloud 
depends in reality upon the respective specific 
gravity of its special matter. The whole, or 
almost the whole, of the matter in an astral 
body may be temporarily forced by a sudden 
rush of passion to vibrate at a certain rate ; but 
all of it except that to which the vibration is 
natural will fall back into its ordinary rate when 
the force is removed. 

Naturally each man has his individual 
idiosyncrasies, and no two are exactly alike ; but 
each illustration given represents a section of an 
average specimen of its class, and its various 
colours are shown in that part of the ovoid where 
they are usually to be found. The outline of 
the physical body is faintly marked inside each 
mist-cloud merely to keep clearly before the 
reader the conception of its size in comparison 
with that of those higher vehicles : though indeed 
in this respect there is but little variation until 
we come to consider the highly developed man, 
when we find that the finer vehicles greatly 
increase in size, as will be shown hereafter. 



Chapter XV 

THE ORDINAEY PEESON 

f Let us now turn from the consideration of the 
savage to examine the ordinary average " man in 
the street " of our own race and period, in order 
that we may see what advancement has been 
made, and in what way it shows itself in the 
various vehicles. ) For our example we will not 
take the student, or the highly cultured and 
refined person; but simply the ordinary lower 
middle-class man — the small grocer, or clerk, 
the concierge, the postman — not the roughest 
sort of man, but simply the ordinary average — 
the "commonplace type with a stick and a pipe," 
so well described in Patience. Looking with 
appropriate sight at the causal body of such a 
man, we shall find it at about the degree of 
development indicated in Plate VIII. It will be 
seen that there has been a distinct increase in the 
content of the great ovoid film ; a certain amount 
of exceedingly delicate and ethereal colour now 
exists within it, though it is still less than half 

filled. The general meaning of the colours is the 

92 



o 

O 






r^T 



^ 



a 




^ 






c °0 * 



« 







c 



6 



IX 



THE ORDINARY PERSON 93 

same as at lower levels, although here they 
indicate qualities definitely and permanently 
acquired by the soul, and they are many octaves 
higher than the colours which represent the same 
qualities on inferior planes. It will be seen that 
something of the higher intellect, something of 
the power of true devotion and true unselfish 
love, has already been developed within the man ; 
and whatever expression of this may be possible 
upon the lower planes will be his as a kind 
of stock-in-trade or inherent quality in every 
incarnation which the future holds in store for 
him. There is even already a faint tint of that 
exceedingly delicate violet which indicates the 
capacity of love and devotion turned towards the 
highest ideal, and also a faint hint of the clear 
green of sympathy and compassion. 

Examining the mental body of the ordinary 
man as pictured in Plate IX., we find that it 
already shows considerable improvement upon 
that of the savage. It is not only that there is 
more in proportion of intellect, love and devotion ; 
but that all of these characteristics have improved 
very greatly in their quality. Though very far 
yet from being perfectly pure, they are yet 
certainly far better in tone than those in Plate 
VI. The proportion of pride is quite as high as 
before, but at least it is now pride at a higher 
level ; if the man is still proud, it will be rather 



94: MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

of such good qualities as he imagines himself to 
possess than merely of physical pre-eminence in 
brute force or in cruelty. There is still a good 
deal of the scarlet which indicates liability to 
anger, but it is noticeable that it now takes a 
much lower place in the cloud, which indicates an 
improvement in the general quality of the matter 
of which this mind-body is composed. The low 
type of green in the mental body of the savage 
(which indicates deceit very strongty tinged by 
avarice and selfishness) required for its vibrations 
a type of matter denser and coarser than that 
needed by the scarlet of anger. The decidedly 
better green which shows in the mental body of 
the ordinary man needs for its vibration matter 
of a type somewhat less dense than the scarlet ; 
and hence apparently the change of relative 
position. The green has now advanced to the 
indication of a certain amount of versatility and 
adaptability, rather than deceit or cunning. A 
large proportion of the mind is still occupied by 
the brown of selfish tendencies; but even this 
colour will he seen to be a trifle warmer and less 
grim than before. 

If we now turn to Plate X. we shall find the 
astral body which corresponds to the mental body 
in Plate IX. — the astral body of the ordinary 
man. It will be seen that this astral body agrees 
very closely with its mental, though its colours 



THE ORDINARY PERSON 95 

are naturally somewhat coarser and it contains 
very decided indications of certain passions 
which cannot be expressed on the higher plane. 
Still it will be found very much improved as 
compared with the astral body of the savage on 
Plate VII. There is less of sensuality, though 
that is still unfortunately one of the most 
prominent characteristics; but at least it is less 
utterly brutal and overpowering than it was. 
Selfishness is still very prominent, and the 
capability of deceit for personal ends is still 
undoubtedly present; but already the green 
seems to be dividing itself into two distinct 
qualities, showing that mere cunning is gradually 
becoming adaptability. 

This drawing of the astral body represents not 
only the average quality of that of the type of 
man to which it belongs, but also its average 
condition when comparatively at rest. The 
astral body of any ordinary person is so very 
rarely at rest that we should gain but a very 
incomplete idea of the possibilities of its 
appearance if we omitted to consider it as it is 
when affected by sudden impulses or rushes of 
feeling. There are also certain more permanent 
attitudes of mind which produce modifications of 
the astral body that are sufficiently distinctive 
to be worthy of remark, and we shall now devote 
a few plates to illustrating these various affects. 



Chapter XVI 

SUDDEN EMOTIONS 

Some of these produce most striking results in 

the astral body — results which are well worth 

careful study. For instance, by turning to Plate 

XL, we shall see an attempt to picture the effect 

which is visible when a sudden wave of strong 

and perfectly pure affection sweeps over a person 

— when, for example, a mother snatches up her 

baby and covers it with kisses. In a moment 

the astral body is thrown into violent agitation, 

and the original colours are for the time almost 

obscured. In this, as in all these cases, the 

astral body of the ordinary person, as given in 

Plate X., is taken as a basis or back-ground, 

though during the passage of the violent 

emotion, but little is seen of it. If the change 

introduced in Plate XL is analysed it will be 

found to consist of four separate parts. Certain 

coils or vortices of vivid colour are to be seen, 

well-defined and solid -looking, and glowing with 

an intense light from within. Each of these is 

96 




XI 






X 



SUDDEN EMOTIONS 97 

in reality a thought-form of intense affection, 
generated within the astral body, and about to 
be poured forth from it towards the object 
of the feeling. It is difficult to depict these 
whirling clouds of living light, but their real 
appearance is indescribably lovely. 

2. The whole astral body is crossed by 
horizontal pulsating lines of crimson light, 
more difficult to represent accurately even 
than the thought-forms, by reason of the 
exceeding rapidity of their motion. The general 
effect, however, has been very happily caught by 
the artist. 

3. A kind of film of rose-colour covers the 
surface of the whole astral body, so that all 
within is seen through it, as through tinted 
glass. In the drawing this shows only at the 
edges. 

4. A sort of crimson flush filling the entire 
astral body, tinging to some extent all the other 
hues, and here and there condensing itself into 
irregular floating wisps, like half-formed cirrus 
clouds. 

This magnificent display of astral fireworks 
would probably last only a few seconds, and 
then the body would rapidly resume its normal 
condition. Yet every such rush of feeling 
produces its effect ; it adds a little to the crimson 
in the higher part of the oval, and it makes it a 



98 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

little easier for the particles of the astral body 
to respond to the next wave of affection which 
comes. Transient though such an impulse may 
be, yet as it occurs again and again its effects 
are cumulative; and another point which must 
not be forgotten is the good influence upon 
others which is produced by the radiation of 
vivid vibrations of love and joy. 

Devotion 

Except that blue is everywhere substituted 
for crimson, Plate XII. is almost identical with 
Plate XI. It illustrates a sudden accession of 
devotional impulse which surged over a nun 
while engaged in contemplation. All the four 
forms of manifestation which we noted in con- 
nection with the impulse of affection are also 
observable here — the whirling, gleaming coils, 
the rapidly-vibrating horizontal lines, the outer 
film and the wisps of cloud — and their 
signification is precisely the same, substituting 
everywhere religious feeling for affection. 

So perfect an outburst of devotion is somewhat 
rare — much less common than a similarly perfect 
outburst of love. A rush of feeling of this 
nature, but generally without its definiteness or 
precision, may sometimes be seen to occur in the 
case of one who offers an act of adoration before 
an altar, or perhaps a picture of the Blessed 





XII 



SUDDEN EMOTIONS 99 

Virgin. Usually the parallel lines would be 
less regular and less prominent, and the sharply 
defined coils would be altogether absent, their 
place being taken by shapeless clouds of blue 
vapour. 

Quite often such shapeless clouds of heavy 
blue may be seen rolling slowly along like 
wreaths of dense smoke over the heads of the 
congregation of a church. But this is not at all 
observable in the ordinary fashionable church, 
where the minds of the men are working over 
again the vicissitudes of their latest speculation, 
and the ladies are deeply absorbed in the delights 
of criticising each other's millinery; nor does it 
ever show itself in those dour "protestant" 
conventicles, where there is no thought of 
anything so humble as worship or devotion, but 
only conceit and self-righteousness, alike in the 
stilted and pompous oration of the speaker, and 
in the smug disputatious heresy-hunting attitude 
of the hearers. But occasionally as an accom- 
paniment to the heartfelt though unmusical 
singing among illiterate dissenters, or sometimes 
among the poor peasants in a Catholic church, or 
more often still at the hearty and earnest service 
of what is called a ritualistic church, a great 
deal of very real devotion manifests itself in this 
way. It is not perhaps especially intelligent, for 
the great blue clouds are rarely lit by even the 



100 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

faintest gleam of gold ; but at least it is genuine 
as far as it goes, and it has undoubtedly an 
elevating effect upon those by whom it is felt. 

In the great majority of cases, however, 
devotion as a sentiment seems to be vague and 
ill-defined, and so fine a specimen as that given 
in our illustration is indeed rare. 

Intense Anger 

Plate XIII. is perhaps the most striking in 
appearance of the whole series, and even without 
any explanation it would of itself be an eloquent 
warning against the folly and wickedness of 
yielding to a fit of passion. As in the previous 
cases, the ordinary background of the astral body 
is temporarily obscured by the rush of feeling, 
but now the strong and vivid thoughts are 
unfortunately those of malice and ill-will. They 
express themselves once more as coils or vortices, 
but this time as heavy, thunderous masses 
of sooty blackness, lit up from within by the 
lurid glow of active hatred. Less defined wisps 
of the same dark cloud are to be seen defiling 
the whole astral body, while the fiery arrows of 
uncontrolled anger shoot among them like flashes 
of lightning. A tremendous and truly awful 
spectacle; and the more fully it is understood 
the more terrible it appears. For this is the 
case of a man who is absolutely transported and 




xm 



SUDDEN EMOTIONS lOl 

beside himself with rage — a man who for the 
time being has utterly lost control of himself, 
and is capable of murder or of the most atrocious 
cruelties. He may be hurried into the commission 
of any crime, and in one moment may commit 
an action for which a whole life of repentance 
can never atone. Even should the discipline 
of education and custom still withhold him 
from outward violence, those terrible flashes are 
penetrating other astral bodies like swords, and 
the man is injuring those about him just as 
really as, though less visibly than, if he assaulted 
them on the physical plane. 

An additional horror is imported by the 
consideration that while he is thus a source of 
danger to others, he is utterly defenceless 
himself. For the moment passion has entirely 
controlled him ; the desire-elemental is supreme, 
and the true man has temporarily lost hold of his 
vehicle. Under those circumstances another and 
stronger will may seize that which he has allowed 
to be wrested from him. Another entity, 
watching and waiting, may as it were grasp the 
rudder of the momentarily abandoned craft, and 
hold possession against the true captain on his 
return. In other words, at such a moment, 
when a man is transported with rage, he is 
liable to be seized and obsessed either by a dead 
man of similar nature or by some evil artificial 



102 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

elemental whose vibrations synchronize with 
those which are dominating him. Not only is 
he a danger to his fellows, but he is in appalling 
danger himself. 

The case selected for illustration is of course 
an extreme one, and such a condition would not 
usually last more than a few minutes. But 
every one who falls into a passion exhibits 
these characteristics to some extent; and one 
cannot but feel that if men only knew how they 
appeared in the eyes of those who can see, when 
they yield themselves to these outbursts of anger, 
they would surely take far greater care to avoid 
them. 

The gust of passion passes away, but it leaves 
its mark behind. In the astral body of the 
average man there is always a certain amount of 
scarlet, which indicates the capacity for anger, 
the possibility of being irritated; and each 
outburst of rage would add something to this, 
and would predispose the matter of the entire 
vehicle to respond somewhat more readily than 
before to these very undesirable vibrations. 

It may also be remembered that though the 
passion may be impermanent, the record of it 
remains for ever in the memory of nature; 
though the elemental created by an evil wish 
will cease to exist after a period proportioned to 
the strength of that wish, yet the living 






XIV 



SUDDEN EMOTIONS 103 

photograph of every instant of its life remains, 
and all the wide-spreading results of its actions 
during that life are charged with absolute justice 
to the karma of its creator. 

Fear 

The effect of fear upon the astral body is very 
striking. A sudden shock of terror will in an 
instant suffuse the whole body with a curious 
livid grey mist, while horizontal lines of the same 
hue appear, but vibrate with such violence as to 
be hardly recognisable as separate lines. The 
result is indescribably ghastly, and it is impossible 
to convey an adequate idea of it by illustration. 
Plate XIV. gives such suggestion of it as can 
be put upon paper, but it can hardly depict 
the strange way in which all light fades out for 
the time from the body, and the whole grey mass 
quivers helplessly like a jelly. 

Such an appearance as this denotes deadly 
panic, and ordinarily would soon pass away. 
A condition of permanent fear or extreme 
nervousness will express itself in a much modified 
form of the same phenomena, but the peculiar 
tinge of grey, and the characteristic quiver, are 
invariable signs of this haunting presence. 



Chapter XVII 

MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 

We have endeavoured to illustrate the immediate 

effect of some of the sudden emotions which 

affect the outer vehicles of man, and to explain 

that, quickly as they pass, they are not without 

permanent results to the soul within. It remains 

for us to describe the way in which certain 

dispositions or types of character manifest 

themselves, so that it may be seen to what 

extent each of these modifies the progress of the 

man upon his upward path. 

There is one influence, however, which produces 

a considerable result in the lives of most men, 

which does not exactly belong to either of these 

categories. It is often sudden in its advent, and 

in most cases it is certainly not lifelong in its 

duration; but still it does not fade away so 

rapidly as those which we have been considering. 

Nevertheless, in the life of such a man as is 

imaged in Plates VIII., IX., and X. it is usually 

the main event ; indeed it is very frequently the 

104 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 105 

one really bright spot in an existence which is 
otherwise monotonous, sordid and selfish — the 
only occasion on which such a personality is 
lifted temporarily out of himself, and lives for 
awhile on an altogether higher level. 

This sudden elevation comes to the person 
who, as it is commonly called, "falls in love." 
It is difficult for those of us who are so happy 
as to live the wider and more cultured life to 
realise how tremendous is the temporary change 
which this "falling in love" brings into the 
existence of the less developed man whom we 
have been describing as ordinary. Those who 
live in the freer atmosphere of art and music, of 
science and philosophy, of world-wide interests 
and habitually altruistic thought, find it difficult 
to put themselves back in imagination into the 
condition of evolution through which they passed 
ages ago — the condition of the less developed soul, 
with its intense self-centredness, its strangely 
limited horizon, its indescribably petty and sordid 
outlook. Assuredly within these younger souls 
also the divine lies latent, and when occasion 
offers it will not infrequently shine forth in deeds 
of splendid heroism and of magnificent self- 
sacrifice. Yet this undoubted possibility does 
not alter the fact that such souls are younger, 
and that under ordinary circumstances they live 
the less-developed life of which we have spoken. 



U 



106 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

Into a life thus cramped and limited there 
suddenly shines a gleam from above, and the 
divine spark within glows brighter in response. 
Later, the man may lose it again, and descend 
once more into the murky light of common day ; 
yet nothing can take away from him the 
experience that for him also once the golden 
gates have opened, and the glory of the higher 
life has been to some extent revealed. He has 
at least passed through a phase when for a 
longer or shorter period self was dethroned, 
and another entity occupied the first place in 
his world ; and thus he learns, for the first time, 
one of- the most valuable lessons in the whole 
course of his evolution. It will be aeons yet 
before that lesson is perfectly assimilated, yet 
even this first glimpse of it is of enormous 
importance to the ego, and its effect on the 
astral body is worthy of special notice. 

The transformation is unexpected and complete, 
as will be seen by comparing Plate X. with 
Plate XV. The two bodies could not be recognised 
as belonging to the same person, so extraordinary 
is the alteration. It will be seen that certain 
qualities have altogether disappeared for the 
time, that others have been enormously increased, 
and that their relative positions have consid- 
erably changed. 

Selfishness, deceit and avarice have vanished, 




XV 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 107 

and the lowest part of the oval is now filled 
with a large development of animal passions. 
The green of adaptability has been replaced 
by the peculiar brownish-green of jealousy, and 
the extreme activity of this feeling is shown 
by the bright scarlet flashes of anger which 
permeate it. 

But the undesirable changes are more than 
counterbalanced by the splendid band of crimson 
which fills so large a part of the oval. This 
is for the time a dominant characteristic, and 
the whole astral body glows with its light. 
Under its influence the general muddiness of 
the ordinary body has disappeared, and the hues 
are all brilliant and clearly marked, good and 
bad alike. It is an intensification of the life 
in various directions. 

It will be noticed that the blue of devotion 
is also distinctly improved, and even (so much 
has the nature been temporarily elevated) a 
touch of pale violet appears at the summit 
of the ovoid, indicating a capacity of response 
to a really high and unselfish ideal. The 
yellow of intellect, however, has entirely 
vanished for the time — which I suppose would 
be considered by the cynical as characteristic 
of the condition ! 

It seems scarcely possible that after all this 
brilliant development the man should sink back 



108 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

again into the condition indicated in Plate X., 
yet in the majority of cases this is what occurs, 
though naturally the amount of crimson has 
considerably augmented, and it is clearer in hue 
than before. This experience of being "in 
love " is assuredly a valuable one for the ego, 
and gives him a definite forward impulse, even 
though there may often be associated with 
it much that is undesirable. The intensely 
strong and unselfish affection often felt by 
children for those somewhat older than 
themselves is a very powerful factor in their 
progress, since it is usually an unmixed benefit, 
free from all associations connected with the 
lower animal nature. Even though such 
affection may seem transitory, and may change 
its object more than once as years roll on, 
it is nevertheless very real while it lasts, and 
it serves a noble purpose in preparing the 
vehicle to respond more readily to the stronger 
vibrations which are yet in the future — just as 
the unset blossom of the fruit-tree, which seems 
to come to nothing, in reality has its function, 
since it not only looks exceedingly beautiful at 
the time, but also helps to draw up the sap for 
the fruit that is to come. 

The Irritable Man 
We turn now to the consideration of the 



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ft I I ■■■■•■ J * ' 

# / • V " - i . •:- - f ; < 



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XVI 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 109 

manner in which certain special types of 
character exhibit themselves in the bodies of 
the man. The case of the irritable man is 
a good specimen of these. His astral body will 
usually show a broad band of scarlet as one 
of its prominent features, as we see in Plate 
XVI. But what especially differentiates him 
from other men is the presence in all parts of 
the astral body of little floating flecks of 
scarlet, somewhat like notes of exclamation. 
These are the result of little accessions of 
irritation at the small worries which are 
constantly occurring in ordinary life. Every 
time any little trifle goes wrong — when his 
coffee is cold, when he misses his train, or 
when the baby upsets the ink bottle — the 
irritable man gives vent to an impatient or 
angry exclamation, and a tiny scarlet flash 
shows the uncontrolled feeling. In some cases 
these little messengers of undisciplined temper 
fly outwards towards the person who is supposed 
to be responsible for whatever has gone wrong ; 
but in many others they simply remain floating 
within him, suspended in the matter of the 
astral body, and presenting the appearance 
shown in our illustration. These spots gradually 
fade away, but their places are taken by others, 
for the irritable man is never at a loss for 
subjects of annoyance. 



110 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

The Miser 

Another striking, but happily less common, 
spectacle, is that which is imaged for us in Plate 
XVII. The background differs somewhat from 
the ordinary astral body, for there is a total 
absence of devotion, and far less than the 
normal proportion of affection. Avarice, 
selfishness, deceit and adaptability (or perhaps, 
rather, cunning) are all intensified, but, on the 
other hand, there is very little sensuality. The 
most remarkable characteristic, however, is to 
be seen in the curious series of parallel horizontal 
lines which bar the oval, and give the impression 
that the man within is confined in a cage. 
These bars are of a deep brown colour, almost 
burnt sienna, level and clearly marked as to 
their upper edge, but shading off into a sort 
of cloud below. This is an illustration of a 
confirmed miser, and naturally so extreme a 
case is not very common; but a large number 
of people seem to have some of the elements of 
the miser in their nature, and show them by an 
intensification of the colour of avarice and by one 
or two such bars in the upper part of the astral 
body, though few are so completely confined as 
is this specimen. This vice of avarice seems 
to have the effect of completely arresting 
development for the time, and it is very difficult 




XVII 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 111 

to shake off when once it has gained a firm hold 
upon the personality. 

Deep Depression 

The astral body shown in Plate XVIII. is in 
many ways similar to the last. Here, however, 
we have dull grey lines instead of the brown, 
and the whole effect is indescribably gloomy and 
depressing to the observer. It does not seem 
that in this case any qualities are necessarily 
absent ; we have simply the ordinary colours of 
the body as a background, but all are veiled 
by these heavy weeping lines. Our picture 
represents a person during a period of extreme 
depression, and naturally there are very many 
intermediate stages between this and the healthy 
astral body. A man may have only a few bars 
of depression, and even they may be but 
transient ; or in slighter and less persistent cases, 
the heavy cloud may hardly have time to arrange 
itself in lines at all. Yet there are only too many 
who yield themselves to these feelings, and allow 
the fog of despair to close round them until all 
the world looks black ; not realising that in doing 
so they are not only seriously delaying their own 
evolution and losing manifold opportunities, but 
are also causing unnecessary suffering and 
injury to all those near to them. No psychic 
condition is more infectious than this feeling of 



112 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

depression ; its vibrations radiate in all directions 
and introduce their slackening, deadening effects 
into every astral body within reach, whether the 
ego to which that astral body belongs is in 
incarnation or not. The man who gives way to 
despondency is thus a nuisance and a danger 
alike to the living and the dead, for in these 
days of overstrain and nervous worry most people 
find it very difficult to resist the contagion of 
these funereal vibrations. (The only man who is 
proof against such dire influences is he who 
understands something of the purpose of life, who 
regards it from the philosophical and common- 
sense standpoint, and realises that it is his duty 
to be happy, since the Logos intends that he 
should be so. The student of Theosophy should 
be instantly distinguishable from the rest of the 
world by his absolute serenity under all possible 
difficulties, and his radiant joy in helping others. J 
Fortunately good influences can be spread abroad 
just as readily as evil ones,/and the man who is 
wise enough to be happy will become a centre of 
happiness for others, a veritable sun, shedding 
light and joy on all around him, and to this 
extent acting as a fellow-worker together with 
God, who is the source of all joy. ) In this way 
we may all of us help to break up these gloomy 
bars of depression, and set the soul within them 
free in the glorious sunlight of the divine love. 





XVIII 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 113 

The Devotional Type 

It will be useful for us to close our list of 
special cases among astral bodies by examining 
two very distinct types, from the comparison of 
which a good deal may be learnt. The first of 
these is illustrated in Plate XIX., and we may 
call him the devotional man. His characteristics 
present themselves through the medium of his 
colours, and we see that he possesses the faint 
touch of violet which suggests the possibility of 
his response to the presentment of a high ideal. 
His most prominent feature is the unusual 
development of the blue, showing strong 
religious feeling; but unfortunately only a very 
small proportion of this is the pure light blue of 
unselfish devotion, the majority being of a dark 
and somewhat muddy hue, suggesting the admix- 
ture of a good deal of desire for personal gain. 

The very small proportion of yellow tells us 

that he has very little intelligence to direct his 

devotion into reasonable channels, or to save him 

from degenerating into senseless bigotry. He 

has a fair proportion of affection and adaptability, 

though not of very high order; but the amount 

of sensuality expressed is much above the 

average, and deceit and selfishness are also very 

prominent. It is a remarkable fact that extreme 

sensuality and the devotional temperament are 
8 



114 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

so frequently seen in association; it would 
suggest that there must be some hidden con- 
nection between them — or it may be simply that 
both are characteristic of a man who lives chiefly 
in his feelings, and is governed by them instead 
of trying to control them by reason. Another 
point to which attention should be paid is the 
irregularity in the distribution of the colours and 
the vagueness of their outline ; they all melt into 
one another, and there are no clear lines of demar- 
cation anywhere. This also is very characteristic of 
the vagueness of the devotional man's conceptions. 
It will be understood that in this case, as in 
all the others of this chapter, we are dealing 
merely with variants of the ordinary person. 
Consequently this is the astral body of an 
ordinary and non-intellectual religious man — not 
in the least that of the developed religious man 
whose devotion is evoked by full comprehension 
and guided by reason. 

The Scientific Type 

The observer can hardly fail to be struck by 
the contrast between the body illustrated in 
Plate XX. and that which we have just 
described. In Plate XIX. we see the principal 
features are devotion (of a sort) and sensuality, 
and a very small modicum of intellect is shown ; 
in Plate XX. we have no devotion at all, and far 




XIX 



MORE PERMANENT CONDITIONS 115 

less than the average amount of sensuality, but 
the intellect is developed to a very abnormal 
degree. Affection and adaptability are both 
somewhat small in quantity and poor in quality, 
being apparently overshadowed by the intellectual 
development, as the man is not yet sufficiently 
advanced to possess all these qualities equally 
in their higher forms. There is a good deal of 
selfishness and avarice, and a certain capability 
of jealousy is also apparent. But the great 
feature of this man is the large proportion 
of golden yellow, showing a well-developed 
intelligence directed principally to the attainment 
of knowledge. A huge cone of bright orange 
rising in the midst of it indicates the presence 
of much pride and ambition in connection with 
that knowledge, but still the shade of the yellow 
precludes the idea that the intellect is debased 
to merely selfish ends. 

It should be noticed also that the scientific 
and orderly habit of mind has a distinct 
influence upon the arrangement of the astral 
colours; they tend to fall into regular bands, 
and the lines of demarcation between them are 
decidedly more definite than in the previous 
illustration. 

It is evident that the bodies pictured in Plates 
XIX. and XX. give us examples of two varieties 
of unequal development ; and while each has its 



116 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

good points, each also has decided disadvantages. 
We shall now proceed to the consideration of the 
vehicles of the more developed man who possesses 
all these various qualities to a much greater 
extent, but has them well balanced, so that each 
supports and strengthens the other, instead of 
dominating or stifling it. 





XX 



Chapter XVIII 

THE DEVELOPED MAN 

The term "developed" is a relative one, so it 

will be well to explain exactly what is here 

meant by it. The vehicles illustrated under this 

heading are such as might be possessed by any 

pure-minded person who had definitely and 

intelligently " set his affection on things above, 

and not on things of earth." They are not 

those of one already far advanced upon the path 

which leads to adeptship, for in that case we 

should find a considerable difference in size as 

well as in arrangement. But they do distinctly 

imply that the man of whom they are expressions 

is a seeker after the higher truth, one who has 

risen above mere earthly aims, and is living for 

an ideal. Among such some may be found 

who are especially advanced in one direction, 

and some in another ; this is an evenly -balanced 

man — simply a fair average of those who are 

at the level which I describe. 

We may first examine Plate XXI., which 

117 



118 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

represents for us his causal body. By compar- 
ing this with Plates V. and VIII. we shall see 
what the man's progress has been, and how 
it is expressed in his appearance. We observe 
that by this time many beautiful qualities 
have been developed within him, for the glorious 
iridescent film is now filled with the most 
lovely colours, typifying for us the higher 
forms of love, devotion and sympathy, aided 
by an intellect refined and spiritualised, and 
by aspirations reaching ever towards the divine. 
Let me quote from the sixth of our Theosophical 
manuals, p. 80: — 

"Composed of matter inconceivably fine, 
delicate and ethereal, intensely alive and 
pulsating with living fire, it becomes as its 
evolution proceeds a radiant globe of flashing 
colours, its high vibrations sending ripples of 
changing hues over its surface — hues of which 
earth knows nothing — brilliant, soft and 
luminous beyond the power of language to 
describe. Take the colours of an Egyptian 
sunset and add to them the wonderful 
softness of an English sky at eventide — raise 
these as high above themselves in light and 
translucency and splendour as they are above 
the colours given by the cakes of a child's 
paint-box — and even then none who have not 
seen can image the beauty of these radiant 




'Tbotochromogravure, Lyons & Loudoi, 



XXI 



The developed man 119 

orbs which flash into the field of clairvoyant 
vision as it is lifted to the level of this supernal 
world. 

" All these causal bodies are filled with living 
fire drawn from a higher plane, with which the 
globe appears to be connected by a quivering 
thread of intense light, vividly recalling to the 
mind the words of the stanzas of Dzyan, ' The 
spark hangs from the flame by the finest thread 
of Fohat'; and as the soul grows and is able 
to receive more and more from the inexhaustible 
ocean of the Divine Spirit which pours down 
through the thread as a channel, the latter 
expands and gives wider passage to the flood, 
till on the next sub-plane it might be imaged 
as a water-spout connecting earth and sky, 
and higher still as itself a great globe through 
which rushes the living spring, until the causal 
body seems to melt into the inpouring light. 
Once more the stanza says it for us : ( The 
thread between the watcher and his shadow 
becomes more strong and radiant with every 
change. The morning sunlight has changed 
into noon-day glory. This is thy present wheel, 
said the flame to the spark. Thou art myself, 
my image and my shadow. I have clothed 
myself in thee, and thou art my vahan to the 
day, "Be-with-us," when thou shalt re-become 
myself and others, thyself and me.' " 



120 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

How hopeless it seems to try to represent 
all this glory on paper! Yet our artist has 
skilfully contrived to suggest that which no 
brush could paint and however far even the 
cleverest physical image may be from that 
transcendent reality, it at least gives our 
imagination a starting-point from which we 
may try to build up a conception. 
/ We must not omit to notice one of the 
grandest characteristics of the developed 
man — his capacity to serve as a channel for 
higher force. It will be seen that from his 
causal body streams of this force pour out in 
various directions, for his attitude of unselfish- 
ness, of helpfulness and readiness to give, makes 
it possible for the divine strength to descend 
upon him in steady stream, and through him to 
reach many who are not yet strong enough 
to receive it directly. Thus to become one of 
God's almoners is indeed a privilege worth 
working for, yet it is within our reach if we 
will but try for it. ) 

The crown of brilliant sparks which ascends 
from the upper part of the body indicates the 
activity of spiritual aspiration, and adds very 
greatly to the beauty and dignity of the man's 
appearance. This rises constantly from the 
causal body, no matter how the lower man may 
be occupied on the physical plane : for when the 



I 



XXII 



THE DEVELOPED MAN 121 

soul of man is once awakened upon his own level, 
and is beginning to understand something of 
himself and his relation to the divine, he looks 
ever upwards towards the source from which he 
came, totally irrespective of any activities which 
he may at the same time be inspiring on lower 
planes. We must never forget how small and 
partial an expression of the self even the noblest 
personality can be; so that as soon as the higher 
man begins to look round him, he finds almost 
unlimited possibilities opening before him, of 
which in this cramped physical life we can form 
no idea. 

This very upward rushing of spiritual 
aspiration, which makes so glorious a crown 
for our developed man, is itself the channel 
through which the divine power descends; so 
that the fuller and stronger his aspirations 
become, the larger is the measure of the grace 
from on high. 

His Mental Body 

It can hardly fail to strike the observer as we 
come to deal with the more developed man, that 
his various vehicles are not only all of them 
greatly refined and improved, but they are also 
very much more like one another. Allowing for 
the difference between what we may call the 
octaves of the colour — between the hues belonging 



122 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

to the lower and the higher levels of the mental 
plane — Plate XXII. is almost a reproduction of 
Plate XXI. ; and the resemblance between Plates 
XXII. and XXIII. is perhaps even more marked, 
though in comparing them we have to remember 
that astral colours are again of a different octave 
from even the lower mental. 

Another useful comparison to make is that 
between Plates XXII., IX. and VI. , in order 
that we may see how the evolution from the 
savage to the unselfish man shows itself in the 
mind-body. It will appear upon examination 
that pride, anger and selfishness have altogether 
disappeared, and that the remaining colours 
have not only so expanded as to fill the whole 
oval, but have also so improved in tone as to 
give quite a different impression. Every one 
of them is more refined and delicate, for all 
thought of self has vanished from them; and 
in addition has appeared the pure violet with 
the golden stars, which indicates the acquisition 
of new and greater qualities. The power from 
above, which we saw radiating out through 
his causal body, acts also through the mental 
vehicle, though with somewhat less force. This 
is on the whole a very fine mental body, already 
well developed, and having within it every 
promise of rapid progress along the Path, when 
the time for that shall come. 






XXIII 



THE DEVELOPED MAN 123 

His Astral Body 

His astral body, which is pictured in Plate 
XXIII., will at once be seen to resemble the 
mental vehicle very closely. It is, in fact, little 
more than a reflection of it in the grosser matter 
of the astral plane. This indicates that the man 
has his desires thoroughly under the control of 
the mind, and is no longer liable to be swept 
away from the firm base of reason by wild 
surges of emotion. Since he is not yet definitely 
on the Path, he will no doubt still be subject to 
occasional irritability, and to undesirable cravings 
of various sorts. But he knows enough now to 
repress these lower manifestations, to maintain a 
struggle against them whenever they appear, 
instead of yielding to them. So though they may 
temporarily change his astral body, they will 
hardly make any permanent impression upon 
it as against the much stronger vibrations of his 
higher qualities. 

In exactly the same way, at a still later stage 
of progress, the mental body itself becomes a 
reflection of the causal, since the man learns to 
follow solely the promptings of the higher self, 
and to guide his reason exclusively by them. 

This illustration brings clearly before us an 
interesting fact connected with the yellow light, 
which signifies intellect. When this colour is 



124 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

present in the oval, it invariably shows itself 
in the upper part of it, in the neighbourhood of 
the head; consequently it is the origin of the 
idea of the nimbus or glory round the head of 
a saint, since this yellow is much the most 
conspicuous of the colours of the astral body, and 
the one most easily perceived by anyone who is 
approaching the verge of clairvoyance. Also, 
even without astral sight it may occasionally 
be perceived; for when any person of some 
development is making a special effort of any 
kind, as, for example, in preaching or lecturing, 
the intellectual faculties are in unusual activity, 
and the yellow glow is therefore intensified. 
In some cases which I have seen, it has passed 
the bounds of physical visibility, and been seen 
by many who had no power of higher sight than 
that of this plane. In such a case, it is not that 
the astral vibration slackens until it sinks below 
the line which separates it from the physical, 
but that it becomes so much more vigorous than 
usual that it is able to arouse a sympathetic 
vibration even in the coarse and heavy matter 
of the physical plane. No doubt it was either 
from occasional glimpses of this phenomenon or 
from traditions derived from those who could 
see, that our mediaeval painters derived the 
idea of the glory round the head of the saint. 
It may be remembered that in the nimbus of 



THE DEVELOPED MAN 125 

the Christ a cross is usually drawn; and this 
also is strictly within the probabilities, from the 
point of view of occult investigation, for it has 
often been observed that in the auras of very 
highly-developed persons various geometrical 
figures present themselves, signifying certain 
elevated and far-reaching thoughts. See Mrs. 
Besant's article on "Thought-Forms" in Lucifer 
for September 1896. 

The student will find it useful to compare 
these illustrations carefully one with another; 
first, to examine each causal body in connection 
with the mental and astral bodies which are 
partial expressions of it, in order to understand 
the connection between these different vehicles; 
and secondly, to compare the three astral bodies 
in Plates VII., X., and XXIII., in order to 
understand how progress shows itself in the 
desire-body, which is naturally much the easiest 
of the various vehicles to see clairvoyantly, and 
in fact the only one which the ordinary psychic- 
ally-developed person is at all likely to see. The 
same comparison should be instituted between 
Plates VI., IX., and XXII., and also between 
Plates V., VIII., and XXI. to study the progress 
of the man as manifested in his higher bodies. 

Among our Theosophical literature we have 
many books which treat of the other side of 
all this evolution, and catalogue the moral 



126 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

qualifications required at its various stages. This 
is a subject of the very deepest interest, though 
somewhat outside of the scope of this little work. 
Those who wish to study it should turn to 
Invisible Helpers, Chapters XIV. to XVI., and 
then read Mrs. Besant's books In the Outer Court 
and The Path of Discipleship. 

From those books some idea may be gained 
not only of the conditions of progress, but of its 
goal and of the glorious future that awaits us 
when we shall have fulfilled those conditions — 
when after many incarnations upon this grand 
old world of ours we shall at last have learnt the 
lessons which its physical life is meant to teach us. 
Then we shall have attained that "resurrection 
of the dead" after which St. Paul was so 
earnestly striving, for we shall be free alike from 
death and from birth, we shall have transcended 
the cycle of necessity, and shall be free for 
evermore — free to help our fellow-men along the 
path that we have trodden, until they also gain 
the light and the victory which is ours. For this 
attainment is for every man, and to reach it is 
only a question of time, however young a soul 
may be. There is for man no doubt about 
"salvation," since there is nothing except his 
own error and ignorance from which any man 
needs to be saved ; there is for him not even an 
"eternal hope," but an eternal certainty. All 



THE DEVELOPED MAN 127 

shall attain, because that is God's will for them, 
that is the sole object for which He called them 
into existence at all. Even already the world is 
progressing, and the powers are beginning to 
develope; and assuredly this morning sunrise 
shall increase into noonday glory. To the vistas 
of advancement that stretch before man, our 
keenest sight can see no end; we know only 
that they extend into splendours indescribable 
illimitable, and divine. 



V 



Chapter XIX 

THE HEALTH-AUEA 

Hitherto we have been dealing exclusively 
with those bodies of man which are connected 
with the higher planes, but our subject would 
not be completely treated if we omitted all 
reference to the minutely subdivided physical 
matter which is seen by clairvoyant sight to be 
part of the aura of man. Much of that matter 
is in the etheric state, and constitutes what is 
often called the etheric double. This is not in 
any sense a separate vehicle, but must be 
considered simply as part of the physical body. 
It is clearly visible to the clairvoyant as a mass of 
faintly luminous violet- grey mist, interpenetrat- 
ing the denser part of the physical body, and 
extending very slightly beyond it, as will be seen 
in Plates XXIV. and XXV. This etheric matter 
is the link between the astral and the physical, 
but it has also a very important function as the 
vehicle of the vital force on the physical plane. 

This vital force is poured upon us from the 

128 






XXIV 



THE HEALTH-AURA 129 

sun, which is the source of life in this inner sense 
as well as hy means of its light and heat in the 
outer world. The earth's atmosphere is full of 
this force at all times, though it is in special 
activity in brilliant sunlight ; and it is only by 
absorbing it that our physical bodies are able to 
live. The absorption of this vital energy is one 
of the functions of the etheric art of that organ 
which we call the spleen ; and that organ possesses 
the curious property of specializing and trans- 
muting the force as it passes through it, so that 
it presents a totally different appearance. 

The force itself is naturally invisible, like all 
other forces; but as it exists around us in the 
atmosphere it clothes itself in millions of tiny 
particles which are colourless though intensely 
active. After it has been absorbed into the 
human body through the spleen, however, these 
particles take on a beautiful pale rose-colour, 
and they flow in a constant stream over and 
through the whole body along the nerves, in the 
same manner as the blood -corpuscles flow along 
the arteries and veins, the brain being the centre 
of this nervous circulation. An attempt is made 
in our illustrations to represent the general 
appearance of this stream, but this must not of 
course be supposed to be an accurate map of the 
nervous system. 

It is evident that this flow is necessary to the 
9 



130 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

proper working of the nerves, for when it is 
withdrawn there is no sensation. We know 
how a limb may be so numbed by cold as to 
be absolutely insensible to the touch; and the 
reason of such insensibility is that the vital force 
is no longer flowing through it. It might be 
supposed that it was rather due to the failure of 
the circulation of the blood, but those who have 
studied mesmerism are aware that one of the 
commonest experiments is to produce similar 
insensibility in a limb by magnetic passes. This 
does not at all interfere with the circulation of 
the blood, for the limb remains warm; but it 
does check the circulation of the subject's 
life-fluid, and substitutes for it that of the mag- 
netizer. The nerves of the subject are still there, 
and (so far as physical sight can see) in perfect 
working order; yet they do not perform their 
office of reporting to his brain, because the fluid 
which animates them is not connected with that 
brain, but with the brain of the operator. 

In a healthy man the spleen does its work 
in so generous a fashion that the specialized 
life-force is present in very large quantities, and 
is constantly radiating from the body in all 
directions. A man in perfect health, therefore, 
not only is able to impart some of it to another 
intentionally, by means of mesmeric passes or 
otherwise, but is also constantly though uncon- 



THE HEALTH -AURA 131 

sciously shedding strength and vitality on those 
around him. On the other hand, a man who 
from weakness or other causes is unable to 
specialize for his own use a sufficient amount of 
the world's life-force, sometimes, equally uncon- 
sciously, acts as a sponge and absorbs the already 
specialized vitality of any sensitive person who is 
unfortunate enough to come into contact with 
him, to his own temporary benefit, no doubt, 
but often to the serious injury of his victim. 
Probably most people have experienced this in 
minor degree, and have found that there is 
some one among their acquaintances after 
whose visits they always feel a quite 
unaccountable weariness and languor; and a 
similar lassitude is frequently felt by persons 
who attend spiritualistic seances without taking 
special precautions against the drain upon 
their vital force set up in the course of the 
manifestations. 

This radiation produces a striking effect upon 
the appearance of what we may call the purely 
physical part of the man's aura. It is well 
known that tiny particles of dense physical 
matter are constantly being thrown off from 
man's body, in insensible perspiration and in 
other ways; and these particles also are visible 
to clairvoyant sight as a faint grey mist. These 
particles are in many cases crystals, and therefore 



132 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

are seen in certain geometrical forms; " for 
example, the tiny cubes of chloride of sodium, 
or common salt, are among the most frequent. 
The purely physical part of man's surrounding 
is sometimes called the health-aura, from the 
fact that its condition is greatly affected by the 
health of the body from which it emanates. It 
is a faint bluish-white, almost colourless, and 
has the appearance of being striated; that is, 
it is full of, or perhaps it might rather be said 
to be composed of, an infinitude of straight 
lines radiating evenly in all directions from the 
pores of the body. That at least is the normal 
condition of these lines when the body is in 
perfect health; they are separate, orderly, and 
as nearly parallel as their radiation allows. 
But on the advent of disease there is an 
instant change, the lines in the neighbourhood 
of the part affected becoming erratic, and lying 
about in all directions in the wildest confusion, 
or drooping like the stems of faded flowers. 

The reason for this curious appearance is itself 
an interesting one. We find that the rigidity 
and parallelism of the lines of this health-aura 
are caused by the constant radiation of life-force 
from the healthy body; and as soon as this 
radiation ceases, the lines fall into the confused 
condition described above. As the patient 
recovers, the normal radiation of this magnetic 




'(-: -. 



XXV 



THE HEALTH- AURA 133 

form of vital energy is gradually resumed, and 
the lines of the health-aura are thereby combed 
into order once more. As long as the lines are 
firm and straight, and the force steadily radiates 
between them, the body seems to be almost 
entirely protected from the attack of evil 
physical influences, such as germs of disease, for 
example — such germs being repelled and carried 
away by the out-rush of the life-force; but when 
from any cause — through weakness, through 
wound or injury, through over-fatigue, through 
extreme depression of spirits, or through the 
excesses of an irregular life — an unusually large 
amount of vitality is required to repair damage or 
waste within the body, and there is consequently 
a serious diminution in the quantity radiated, 
this system of defence becomes dangerously 
weak, and it is comparatively easy for the deadly 
germs to effect an entrance. 

It may also be mentioned that it is possible 
by an effort of will to check this radiation of 
vitality at the outer extremity of its lines, and 
there to build it into a kind of wall or shell, 
which will be absolutely impervious to these 
germs — and, with a little further effort, 
impervious also to any kind of astral or 
elemental influence — so long as such effort of 
the will is maintained. 

Illustrations of this aura, showing its appear- 



134 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

ance in health and disease respectively, will be 
found in Plates XXIV. and XXV. It must be 
remembered that it is almost colourless, so that 
although it is physical matter, and so needs less 
developed sight than the astral part of the aura, 
yet this latter is so much more conspicuous by 
reason of the brilliancy of its flashing colours 
and its constant movement, that it is very often 
seen at an earlier stage of the man's progress 
than the other. 



Chapter XX 

THE CAUSAL BODY OF THE ADEPT 

Probably to those who cannot yet see any of 
the higher bodies of man, the illustrations given 
in this book will be to some extent suggestive and 
even illuminative, and it is in the hope that that 
may be so that it has been published. Yet those 
who can see, while recognising to the full the 
painstaking care and skill of the artist, will all 
agree that even the lowest of these super-physical 
planes can never be adequately pourtrayed on 
paper or canvas. If this be true, as it assuredly 
is, how much more hopelessly impossible (if 
one may be pardoned the use of an improper, 
but expressive phrase) must it be to try to 
represent the Adept — the man who has attained 
the goal of humanity — who has become some- 
thing more than man. 

In his case the size of the causal body has 
enormously increased, and shines with a sun-like 
splendour far beyond all imagination in its 

glorious loveliness. Of the beauty of form and 

135 



136 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

colour here no words can speak, for mortal 
language has no terms in which those radiant 
spheres may be described. Such a vehicle would 
be a separate study in itself, but one quite 
beyond the powers of any but those who are 
already far on the Path. 

This at least may be seen, that such a body 
is not only much larger than that of the ordinary 
man, but also has its colours differently arranged. 
These no longer move in whirling clouds, but 
are arranged in great concentric shells, yet 
penetrated everywhere by radiations of living 
light always pouring forth from him as a centre. 
The order of the colours differs according to the 
type to which the Adept belongs, so that there 
are several well-marked varieties amid their 
glory. Strangely enough, considering the 
recondite character of the subject, a tradition 
— a perfectly accurate tradition — of this fact has 
been preserved in many of the roughly-drawn 
pictures of the Lord Buddha which one sees upon 
temple walls in Ceylon. The Great Teacher is 
usually represented there surrounded by an aura ; 
and the strange thing is that though the colouring 
and general arrangement of those surroundings 
would be grotesquely inaccurate and even 
impossible if intended for that of an ordinary 
man, or even for that of an ordinary Adept (if 
one may without irreverence use such an 



THE CAUSAL BODY OF THE ADEPT 137 

expression), jet it is a rough and material 
representation of the actual higher vehicle of the 
Adept of that particular type to which this 
Great One belongs. It is noteworthy also that 
the lines of the health-aura are drawn in some 
of these primitive pictures. 

If it is impossible to attempt to illustrate the 
causal body of the Master, it may yet be worth 
while to give some idea of the relative size and 
appearance of that of one of His more advanced 
pupils — one who has attained that fourth stage 
of the Path which in Oriental books is called 
that of the Arhat. (See Invisible Helpers, p. 
119.) Such an endeavour has been made in 
Plate XXVI. , but an effort of the imagination 
even greater than usual is necessary to complete 
the picture, by reason of the fact that the colours 
of this causal body have two characteristics which 
are irreconcilable here on the physical plane. 
They are definitely more delicate and etheral 
than any that have been previously described; 
yet at the same time they are far fuller, more 
brilliant and more luminous. Until we can 
paint with fire instead of mere colour, we shall 
find ourselves always on one horn or other of the 
dilemma; for if we attempt to represent the 
depth and richness of the colour it must look 
dense and solid ; if we try instead to give its 
marvellous transparency and luminosity, then 



138 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

the colours must be entirely lacking in the 
wonderful power and brilliancy which is so 
prominent a characteristic of the glorious reality. 
Since, however, an effort has been made in the 
case of the other causal bodies to give an idea of 
the transparent ovoid form, it seems better in 
this case to try to give the depth of colour, its 
arrangement, and the relative size. This last 
can be brought into proportion only by the 
expedient of decreasing many times the size of the 
physical body in our picture ; for if we retained 
the same scale as that previously employed, the 
causal body of the Arhat would need to be 
represented as some yards in length and breadth. 
Consequently we are compelled to reduce very 
much the drawing of the physical ^form, in order 
that the causal body, when drawn in proportion 
to it, may come within the size of even a double 
plate. But even at the best, such a drawing can 
only be regarded as a help to stimulate us in an 
effort to make a mental image — an image which 
may perchance be less hopelessly inadequate than 
the physical representation. 

In examining this illustration we are at once 
struck by the magnificent development of the 
highest types of intellect, love and devotion, by 
the wealth of sympathy and of the highest 
spirituality which it displays. The outrush of 
the Divine influence which we saw in Plate XXI. 




XXVI 



THE CAUSAL BODY OF THE ADEPT 139 

is enormously intensified here, for this man has 
become an almost perfect channel for the life and 
the power of the Logos. Not only in white light 
does the glory radiate from him, but all the 
colours of the rainbow play round him in ever 
changing gleams like mother-of-pearl; so that 
there is something in that radiation to strengthen 
the highest qualities in every person who 
approaches him, no matter what those qualities 
may be. Thus none can come within the range 
of his influence without being the better for it; 
he shines upon all around him like the sun, for, 
like it, he has become a manifestation of the 
Logos. 

The mind-body and astral body connected 
with this would have very little characteristic 
colour of their own, but would be reproductions 
of the causal body in so far as their lower 
octaves could express it. They have a lovely 
shimmering iridescence — a sort of opalescent, 
mother-of-pearl effect — which is far beyond 
either description or representation. 

One thing at least we may perhaps hope that 
our study of these inner vehicles will do for us ; 
it may help us to understand that it is this higher 
presentation of him which is the real man, 
and not that aggregation of physical matter 
crystallized in the midst of it, to which we in 
our blindness attach such undue importance. 



140 MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE 

The very man himself — the divine trinity within 
— we may not see; but the more our sight 
and knowledge increase, the more nearly we 
approach that which veils Itself in him ; and if 
for the moment the highest vehicle of his 
which is perceptible to us is the causal body, 
then that is the nearest to a conception of the 
true man that our sight will at present give 
us. But if the same man be looked upon from 
the standpoint of the lower mental levels, 
naturally only so much of him can be seen as 
can be expressed in that mind-body which is 
the manifestation of the personality. Examining 
him on the astral plane, we find that an 
additional veil has descended, and only that 
lower part of him is visible which can find 
expression though the vehicle of desire. Here 
on the physical plane we are still worse off, 
since the true man is more effectually hidden 
from us than ever. 

Perhaps the knowledge of this may lead us 
to form a somewhat higher opinion of our 
fellow-man, since we realise that he is always 
so much more than he seems to the physical 
eye. There is always the higher possibility 
in the background, and often an appeal to the 
better nature will arouse it from its latency, 
and bring it down into manifestation where all 
can see it. When we have studied the man 



THE CAUSAL BODY OF THE ADEPT 141 

as he is, it may be easier for us to pierce 
through the dense physical veil, and image the 
reality which is behind. Our faith in human 
nature may become greater when we realise 
how entirely it is part of the divine nature; 
and so we may be able to help our fellow-man 
the better, because we grasp the certainty that 
he and we are one. 

If through us the divine light shines out 
more brightly, it is only in order that we may 
share that light with him; if we have gained 
a higher step upon the ladder, it is only that 
we may stretch out a helping hand to him. 
The more we understand this glorious scheme 
of evolution whose progress we have been 
studying in its outward manifestation, the 
more fully shall we see the true intention of 
the mighty self-sacrifice of the Logos; and so 
beautiful is this, so perfect beyond all thought 
of ours, that to see it once is to be devoted 
for ever to its realisation. To see it is to 
throw oneself into it, to strive for ever more 
to be one with it, even though in the very 
humblest capacity; for he who works with 
God is working for eternity and not for time, 
and in all the seons that lie before us his work 
can never fail. 



INDEX 



Accession of affection, 96 
Accession of devotion, 98 
Action of irritability, 73 
Adept, the, 135 
Affection in children, 108 
Affinity, chemical, 48 
Anger, sudden, 100 
Animal consciousness, 49 
Animal instincts, 43 
Animal intelligence, 61 
Animal monad, the, 39 
Arhat, the, 137 
Aspects of the Logos, 29, 34 
Aspirations, spiritual, 120 
Astral awakening, 55 
Astral body, the, 76, 94 
Astral body of savage, 88 
Astral impressions, how re- 
ceived, 16 
Astral world, the, 10, 22 
Astral work, 57 
Athanasian Creed, the, 28 
Atoms, 9 

Aura, the health, 128 
Avarice, exhibition of, 110 
Average man, the, 92 
Awakening upon the astral, 55 

Bases of Theosophical knowl- 
edge, 3 
Bodies of man, the, 13 
Buddhi, 22 
Building of a shell, 133 

Causal body, the, 52, 64, 66, 
78, 92, 118 

Ceylon, temple pictures in, 136 

Characteristics of the Theo- 
sophical student, 112, 120 

Chemical affinity, 48 



Chemistry, occult, 8, 10 
Children, affection in, 108 
Church, effects seen in, 99 
Churches, schism between, 32 
Clairvoyance, what it is, 19 
Clairvoyant sight, 4, 13 
Colours and their meaning, 71, 

80, 87, 93, 94 
Colours, production of the, 73 
Conditions of matter, 7 
Consciousness, development of 

the, 46 
Consciousness during sleep, 53 
Consciousness, focus of, 16 
Consciousness in the animal 

kingdom, 49 
Consciousness, human, 52 
Consciousness in the vegetable 

kingdom, 49 
Creed, the Athanasian, 28 

Depression, 111 
Descent of the Logos, 31, 36 
Desire elemental, the, 39 
Developed man, the, 117 
Development of consciousness, 

46 
Devotion, accession of, 98 
Devotional type, the, 113 
Differentiation, 40, 44 
Dimensions, many, 24 
Double, the etheric, 128 

Effect of motion, 73, 96 
Effects seen in church, 99 
Elemental kingdoms, 38 
Elementals, dark and bright, 77 
Elementals, desire and mental, 

39. 
Elements, 8 



142 



INDEX 



143 



Emotion, effect of, 73, 96 
Energy, vital, 129, 132 
Equation, the personal, 79 
Essence, monadic, 38 
Ether, 8 

Etheric double, the, 128 
Evil, impermanence of, 74 
Evolution, moral, 126 
Evolution, necessity of, 62 
Evolution, Theosophical theory 

of, 2. 
Experiments of Professor Van 

Schron, 37 

Falling in love, 105, 107 
Fear, 103 

Feeling, the process of, 15 
First outpouring, 36 
Focus of consciousness, 16 
Future which awaits us, 126 

Gravity, specific (of astral 

matter), 90 
Group-soul, the, 40 

Health- aura, the, 128 

Holy Ghost, procession of the, 
32 

How astral impressions are re- 
ceived, 16 

Human consciousness, 52 

Imperfection of ordinary 
vision, 19 

Impermanence of evil, 74 

Impressions (astral), how re- 
ceived, 16 

Individualisation, 45 

Instincts, animal, 43 

Intelligence in the animal, 61 

Intense anger, 100 

Interpenetration of planes, 11, 
12 

Irritable man, the, 108 

Irritability, action of, 73 

Justice, law of, 75 

Kingdoms, elemental, 38 

Law of justice, 75 
Life in the mineral, 37 
Little worries, 109 
Logos, the, 27 



Logos, aspect of, 29, 34 
Logos, descent into matter of, 

31, 36 
Love, falling in, 105, 107 

Malice, 100 

Man an image of God, 26, 33 

Man, the irritable, 108 

Man, the real, 139 

Man, spiritual, 65 

Man, various bodies of, 13 

Man's evolution, Theosophical 

theory of, 2 
Many dimensions, 24 
Mary, the Virgin, 36 
Matter, conditions of, 7 
Matter, descent of the Logos 

into, 31, 36 
Meanings of colour, 71, 80, 87, 

93, 94 
Mechanism of thought, 14 
Mental body, 78, 93 
Mental elemental, 39 
Mental world, 11, 22 
Mineral, life in the, 37 
Mineral monad, 39 
Miser, the, 110 
Monadic essence, 38 
Monads, mineral and vegetable, 

39 
Moral evolution, 126 

Nature, planes of, 7 
Nimbus, origin of the, 124 
Necessity of evolution, 62 
Nirvana, 20 

Obsession, a man liable to, 101 
Occult chemistry, 8, 10 
Ordinary man, 92 
Origin of the nimbus, 124 
Outpouring, the first, 36 
Outpouring, the second, 37 
Outpouring, the third, 38, 59 

Passion, results of, 102 
Past, records of, 30 
Person, meaning of, 30 
Personal equation, the, 79 
Persons of the Logos, 29 
Planes, interpenetration of, 11, 

12 
Planes of Nature, 7, 20, 23 
Process of feeling, 15 



144 



INDEX 



Procession of the Holy Ghost, 

32 
Production of the colours, 73 
Psychical faculti/s, how they 

show themselves, 86 

Real man, the, 139 
Reasoning power in animals, 

49 
Records of the past, 25 
Reincarnation, 43, 67 
Results of passion, 102 
Rush of affection, 96 

Salvation, 126 
Savage, the, 87 
Savage, astral body of, 88 
Schism between churches, 32 
Scientific type, the, 114 
Second outpouring, 37 
Selfishness outgrown, 69 
Shell, the building of a, 133 
Sight, clairvoyant, 4 
Size of the vehicles, 91 
Sleep, consciousness during, 53 
Souls, younger, 105 
Specific gravity of astral mat- 
ter, 90 
Spiritual aspirations, 120 
Spiritual man, 65 
States of matter, 7 
Sudden emotion, effects of, 96 
Sympathetic vibration, 74 



Temple pictures in Ceylon, 136 

Terror, a sudden shock of, 103 

Theosophical knowledge, bases 
of, 3 

Theosophical student, charac- 
teristics of, 112, 120 

Theosophical theory of man's 
evolution, 2 

Third outpouring, the, 38, 59 

Thought forms, 125 

Thought, mechanism of, 14 

Trinity, the, 26 

Trishna, 68 

Vampires, unconscious, 131 
Vegetable consciousness, 49 
Vegetable monad, the, 39 
Vehicles, relative size of, 91 
Vibrations, sympathetic, 74 
Virgin Mary, the, 36 
Vital energy, 129, 132 
Von Schron, experiments of 
Professor, 37 

Water spout, illustration of 

the, 60 
What clairvoyance is, 19 
Work on the astral, 57 
World, the astral, 10 
World, the mental, 11, 22 
Worries, little, 109 

Younger souls, 105 



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By ANNIE BESANT 

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The Opinions of some Leading Authorities 

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V 






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